
Class. BXJL3j23 
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The Noblest Quest 



The Noblest Quest 

And Other Sermons 
Preached is the First Methodist Episcopal Church, 

Cleveland, (). 



By 

CHARLES BAYARD MITCHELL, 

Ph. D., I). D. 

OF THE BAST OHIO CONFERENCE 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



• M55NU 









^ecavoc 


1 2 


1905 


a AXc Mm 
i 



COPYRIGHT, l<? 

A HAM 



(in mg £ff&iker 

The Rev. D. P. Mitchell 



CONTENTS. 



fAGE. 



I. THE Noblest Quest, 9 

II. The Supreme Master, ... 29 

III. A Shameless Jew, - - - 51 

IV. The Dignity of Labor, - 69 
V. Remember Thy Creator, 85 

VI. A Deserted Grave, - - - 105 

VII. Life's Jerusalem, - - - 125 

VIII. The Impartial God, - - - 143 



I. 

Till-. NOBLEST QUEST. 

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and If is right- 

t WSltess, and all these things shall be added unto 

you." — Matt, vt, 33. 

THESE words form but a single sentence 
snatched from the most remarkable sermon ever 
preached, — the Sermon on the Mount. That ser- 
mon had a great preacher ; great because He knew 
two important things, two things which are essen- 
tial for every preacher to know, — He knew God, 
and He knew men. Too many modern preachers 
know men better than they know God. Some few 
may know God better than they know men. Knowl- 
edge of both is essential to the highest success. 

That sermon had a great pulpit. It stood out 
under God's open sky, and out in God's open field. 
That sermon had a great hearing. The multitudes 
from neighboring villages and cities were crowd- 
ing the hillside. They were there to listen to what 
this great preacher had to say That sermon pro- 

9 



io The: Noblest Quest. 

duced a great effect. Everything about that occa- 
sion was great. We are not yet done measuring 
the greatness of that remarkable address. Yet a 
sermon must have more than a mighty preacher, a 
splendid pulpit, and a vast audience, to produce 
results that are immeasurable. It must have a 
mighty n : and this triumphant sermon had a 

sage which lias thrilk-d the generations. He 

held out the promise of a pure life to every fallen 
man. lie told them that only such a life could be 
attained by the forsaking of their sins, and believ- 
ing in Him as a personal Savior, lie insisted that 
the noblest quest of every earnest life must be "the 
kingdom of God." 

Nearly all the commandments have attached to 
them a promise in the form of a reward. In the 
command contained in this text Jesus attaches a 

• sweeping | lie says, "All these things 

shall be added unto you." You will recall that lie 

had just been talking about things very important 

to them; such things as wearing apparel, and food 
and drink. If we are wise, we are anxious to know 
what COUrse we are to pursue in life which will se- 
cure such things for us. We need garments for our 
nakedness, and something more substantial than 
angels' food for our fare. We are in the habit of 



Tin; XomjxT ( )n;sT. 1 1 

saying that they who secure the good things of life 
are they who have learned best how to relate them- 
selves to Mich questions as "How shall I be 

Clothed?" and "What shall I cat?" The great mass 
of people live as though they thought that the chief 

end in life is to provide for the wants of the body. 
They call this life a "bread-and-butter battle." They 
&ay that that man only is wise and successful who 
knows how to secure for himself, and those depend- 
ent upon him, these physical requirements. 

Now, here comes this great Preacher and says 
to that multitude who heard Him, and all the multi- 
tudes following, that the chief business in life is 
not to secure these physical necessities ; that there 
is something even more important than food and 
raiment. He tells us that the chief thing to seek 
after is the very thing which most people think 
nothing about. He insists that we shall seek this 
higher good, and that while in pursuit of it, these 
other things will come to our hand as a natural con- 
sequence, without very much concern on our part. 
This seems like a strange philosophy that puts forth 
the theory that the things one so much desires and 
so much needs are to be set aside as a mere second- 
ary consideration ; and then, while in the pursuit of 
something else, these things will come along as a 



12 The: Noblest Quest. 

matter of course. Yet those of us who have had 
much experience in the ways of the world have dis- 
covered that things very desirable in life are often 
more easily secured by not making a special effort 
to get them. 

We have learned that, when we have busied our- 
selves to possess some things which we very much 
coveted, we lacked the ability to enjoy them. You 
will remember that Sancho Tan/a was very anxious 
to govern a little island of his own. When it at 
came into hu n, he did not know what 

to do with it. This is but a comic portrayal of the 
experience of many people more practical than poor 
old Sancho. Pleasure is a thing for which most 
of the world is in hot pursuit; yet it is such a deli- 
cate thing that i1 sed by the very way 

le attempt to grasp it. It is well known that 

the least happy people in the world are often those 

who make a pr king pleasure. 

One day my train stopped in a grain-field in 
Holland. The wheat was dotted thick with blood- 
red poppies. I opened my compartment door, 
Stepped out quickly, gathered an armful of the 
beautiful flowers and hastened into the car. To 
my surprisej I discovered that in my haste I had 
shaken the petals from off their stems, and there 



Tin. Noblj Q 13 

wa> no beaut} Icfl in my hand. Thru I understood 

what was meant by the poet when he said, 

" Pleasures are like poppies spread, 

You seize the flower, the bloom is shed." 

Some of you have long- anticipated some ex- 
perience which you fancy would give you the 
highest delight. All my life long I had antici- 
pated a ride down the wonderful Yale of Cha- 
mouni. The long-hoped-for day came when I was 
permitted to make that journey. Instead of viewing 
snow-capped mountains, listening to the music of a 
thousand waterfalls as they dropped into the val- 
ley, it rained all day long, and I was compelled to 
remain inside the diligence, and see little of the 
beauties of the far-famed valley. 

Often, much of life's delights comes to us at 
times wdien we do not expect them, and in ways 
which we have not planned. I recall now a picture 
that I saw in the National Gallery in Dresden. A 
nun sat in her cell, holding in her hand a beautiful 
rose which had been thrown by an invisible hand 
through an open window. I doubt not its perfume 
was the sweeter and its beauty the more entrancing, 
because it had come to her so unexpectedly. After 
all, the most unexpected pleasures bring us the most 



14 The Noblest Quest. 

delight. I have no doubt that there are many here 
to-day who can testify that most of the good things 
which they have come to possess in this life came as 
a result of seeking other things which lay far be- 
yond them. As a boy I soon discovered that I could 
only throw poorly. So when I played ball behind 
the bat, and wanted to throw to second base, I al- 
ways aimed at the D ;ant fixed star. That is 
a wise advice given by Emerson: "Hitch your 
wagon to a star." It is only when we have lofty 
aims that we gain anything worth while. There are 
those who tell us to be sane and practical; to aim 
at the things near at hand; but the divine law runs 
counter to this sage philosophy of tlie world, and 
3 us to understand that if we aim at the distant, 
we will also secure that which is nigh. Many a man 

•.'.re a g 1 reputation among men, 

and utterly missed it. Whenever men seek sternly 

rform their duty, regardless of what effect it 

may have on their reputation, they stand highest in 
the world's estimation. When those who arc strug- 
gling on a sinking ship have the life-line thrown 
clear over and beyond their sinking vessel, they 
are far more apt to catch the line and be drawn in 
safetv to the sh< 



Tin; X 15 

Moreover, I want to insist that often the things 

which appeal most to one's ambitions are unworthy 
oi him. 

In addressing this great multitude of young peo- 
ple to-day, hundreds of whom are on the threshold 
of active life, with your college career behind you, 
I am hoping that within the breast of each are the 
loftiest ambitions. I would not give much for your 
future were you lacking in ambition. I want you 
to seek the best things. I covet for you the richest 
gifts earth can bestow. Yet I want to warn you 
that you can not afford to waste your lives in the 
pursuit of things which are purely temporal. You 
will find it necessary to struggle to gain a place 
among men. Competition will be strong. The 
strife will be intense ; and you will often grow weary 
in your struggle to maintain your place. The prac- 
tical necessities of life will press you on. You will 
frequently be forced to remember that you have 
need of raiment and food and drink ; but you must 
also remind yourself that these very necessary 
things are not the chief pursuits of a noble life. 
You will need money ; but you must seek more than 
wealth. Worldly honors may be bestowed upon 
you, but your chief business will not be to secure 



16 The: Noblest Quest. 

them. You must never forget that you yourself 
shall be when all these things are not. Do not 
make the mistake of the wise fool in the Scripture. 
He was not a fool because he obtained worldly suc- 
cess. He was not a fool because he would build 
larger barns for his increased harvest. He was a 
fool because he thought he could satisfy his soul 
with corn. He said to his soul, "Take thine case, 
for I have much goods laid up in store for thee." 
lie was a fool to think that the things that he had 
gained could satisfy the hunger of an immortal 
soul. His SOUl ' *ving in the midst of plenty; 

and he was a fool not to know it. You are larger 
than anything this world holds. You yourself are 

worth more than all the Stars that glitter in the 
winter night. Do not allow yourself to live only for 
the things which perish in the using. Live for the 

highest thin. ek the kingdom of God. 

into it, — rather, let it get into you. The human soul 

is the only thing big enough to contain the kingdom 
of God. JeSUS -aid, "The kingdom of God is within 
Let nothing less than this vast possession sat- 
die ambition of your soul. Learn the laws of 
this kingdom and keep them. Get into harmony 
with this kingdom and enjoy its richest blessings. 
You will then discover that, having come into pos- 



The Nobw 17 

on of the highest things, you have, through the 
very process, prepared yourself for the gaining 

and the enjoying of the lower things. He only is 
equipped for the kingdom of earth who has found 

the kingdom of God. He only is best fitted for this 
earth who has qualified himself for the heavens. 
Get the kingdom, and the other things less valuable, 
and yet desirable and essential, will come naturally 
in its train. 

This remarkable statement of this great 
Preacher not only contains a promise, but it con- 
tains an emphatic command. He said, "Seek ye 
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.'' 
Due very naturally inquires what is meant by this 
thing called "the kingdom of God." One thing is 
sure, if God exists, He has a kingdom. If He has 
a kingdom, that kingdom has its laws, both written 
and unwritten. It also has its subjects who belong 
to it; who keep its laws and reverence its King. 
And wherever His laws are operating, and wher- 
ever obedient men and women are seeking to keep 
them, there is the kingdom of God. Go where any 
man is striving to do the will of his Heavenly 
Father; go where any earnest soul is struggling 
with temptation, — and there you will find that God 
has set up His kingdom. That kingdom can be 
2 



1 8 The Noblest Quest. 

found in the palace or in the cottage. I can take 
you into the workshop, into the office, into the 
school-room, into the home, and show you where 
the kingdom of God is already established. 

You ask me, "What docs Jesus mean by seeking 
this kingdom?" I answer. "Surely, it must mean 
that we must recognize that the kingdom does ex- 
ist; that we wai/ into it, and be a part of it; 
to keep its laws and to advance its dominion." 

The character of a man is determined hy the 

things h< • 1 prizes. I am continually 

in my ministry that the whole object of 

the divir. gst men is to get them to he 

Godlike. I am sure that I '.« d want- US to seek the 

kingdom, not so much that good may come to the 

kingdom, as that good may come to man ////-, 
tile kingdom. The kingdom exists for the good of 

man, and not man for the good of the king- 
dom. JesUS was always trying to get men 

to stretch themselves to the highest and noblest 

standards. He knew that the kingdom into which 
lie would usher tis, if we would only seek it, would 
furnish an environment for the development of the 
noblest character. Men take on the color of their 
surroundings ; and the very government with which 
one is allied imparts to each citizen something of 



Tin: \mI'.i.i;m' QlJ] 19 

the characteristics of the whole body. To belon 



s 



to the Greek government in the time of Socrates 
was in itself a liberal education. No doubt Paul 
got something of the sweep and power of the 
Roman government into his nature from the fact 

that he boasted of being a Roman citizen. There is 
something in the mere citizenship in a republic like 
ours which broadens one's soul and puts it in sym- 
pathy with the universal struggle for liberty and 
lom for all men. What must it not mean for 
any man's character to become a part of the king- 
dom of God ? Let a man once comprehend some- 
thing of the grandeur, stability, and endurance of 
the kingdom of God, and he will find his soul growl- 
ing as seeds grow in fertile soil. I promise you 
young people here to-day, that three elements will 
enter into your character if you seek and find the 
kingdom of God. These three things are essential 
to every successful life. The lack of them, no mat- 
ter what else is possessed, leaves a weak and worth- 
less character. 

I promise you that if you seek and find the king- 
dom of God you shall in the first place discover your 
character growing big and broad with the breadth 
of the kingdom into which you have come. The 
trouble with the average man is that he lives in too 



20 The Noblest Quest, 

small a world. He has no large outlook. His en- 
ergies are too much confined to the trivial and the 
little. The soul can not grow in a little world. The 
temptation to so many is to be satisfied with the 
little and the commonplace. Too many of us see 
the world only through a narrow slit. Many of us 
can get down on our knees and look through a key- 
hole with both eyes wide open. The world needs 
to-day broad-minded men and women. It is the 
narrow man who makes all our trouble. It is this 

narrowness which is creeping into our religious 

life, making us fanatics. It IS this element that 
makes the crank. The truth is, there is no one 
creed broad enough to take in all truth. All our 
might well have written across them the 
w<>rd "amplius," which Angelo wrote across the 
narrow, contracted painting of his pupil. All our 
theological creeds need to be ampler, larger, 

broader. ( K if men would only learn to take their 
stand by the side of Christ, and view the world 
from the angle of vision with which He beholds it! 
How the horizon would stretch out before us, and 
how many more lovely blessings and beautiful 
things would sweep into our larger vision! 

If we live more in the atmosphere of the king- 
dom of God, our opinions will be less selfish, our 



Tm. No m.i est Qui 21 

ideas [ess narrow, and our creeds [eSS exclusive, 

and we would discover our characters growing 
like trco in the genial sunshine of summer. I 
would not lead you to conclude, from what I am 
Baying, that this breadth of outlook is a simple, 
suave indifference to what one may hold to be the 
truth. It is easy to be broad when there is no 
denth. We are apt to be so broad and so thin that 
our thinking has no moral consistency. I plead for 
a breadth of character which is only another name 
for that divine sympathy which knows how to ap- 
preciate the view-point of another ; and that splen- 
did generosity which attributes an honest motive 
to him who may differ from us. If you want to 
get the best conception of this beautiful city, you 
will not get it by walking its streets and measuring- 
it with a surveyor's chain. But you will get a better 
view of the city by rising to some eminence and 
then taking in with the sweep of the eye the vast 
stretches from that loftier outlook. 

I have no doubt that you will find breadth com- 
ing to your character by the wise and careful study 
of the thoughts and opinions of many minds ; but 
I insist to tell you that I know no way by which 
you may get such breadth of character, such lofty 
conceptions of living, as by mingling in the society 



22 Tin; Noblest Quest. 

of Him who is able to lead you out into the broadest 
fields of contemplation. Note the purposes of God. 
Learn His plans, and get in sympathy with His 
kingdom, and you can not be narrow. 

There is another quality in human character 
which is always admirable; if it is lacking in the 
most distinguished he is universally despised. Youth 
Deeds to be on its guard here. You are entering 
upon life's duties and striving to make a place for 
yourself in the world. In this competing world, 
no one vise will give way for you. Each must look 
OUt for himself and win his own way. Herein is 
the danger. The personal struggle will beget self- 
ishness* You will find yourself giving too much 
ght to things which are yours, and not enough 

to the things which belong to ethers. Do not lose 

your self-respect in your strivings for your own. 

"Take heed unto thyself; 91 but also be on your con- 
stant guard lest you grow selfish. I want you to 
get into the kingdom of God because there you 

will find it easier "to look upon the thing 
(-tilers." Selfishness can not flourish in the soil of 
the kingdom of God. I promise you that if you 
seek and find the kingdom of God, no sooner will 
you have entered it than all that ugly selfishness will 
have dropped from you. You may get into the 



Tin: N( iBLES r Qi 
kingdom by seeking your own good; that is neo 

:\ ; but I warrant you that yOU will not Stay in 

the kingdom if you continue to seek only your own 
od. I covet for you young people the character 
graced by this Christly unselfishness; and thai 

why I want you to obey the command and seek 
FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteous™ 
I know full well that your character will not be 

beautified unless you catch the spirit and emulate 
the example of Jesus Christ, the Founder of this 
kingdom. 

Another reason why I am anxious that you shall 
seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness is, 
that if you thus come into possession of it your 
character will take on another royal attribute of the 
kingly soul. For the want of a better name, I call 
it "eternalness." So many good things in life are 
ephemeral. They are so short-lived. There are 
elements in character which are beautiful and at- 
tractive, and yet they are not essential. Jesus came 
to show men that the greatest thing in the world is 
the individual soul. God Himself, in the person of 
His Son, traversed the universe in search of a 1 
soul. That is the one thing in the universe which 
has in it the element of perpetuity. It can not die. 
Now. I Contend that the soul's character should take 



24 The: Noblest Quest. 

on something of the solidity and permanency of 
that kingdom, which, unlike other earthly kingdoms 
which so quickly pass away, shall abide forever. I 
intimated a while ago that to belong to a govern- 
ment like that which had its capital on the Tiber, 
and which was supposed to be so strong that it 
could never cease to be, was to give to the citizen 
something of the same feeling of stability and per- 
manency. Surely, there is a type of character which 
can only he produced by citizenship in the kingdom 
which gives promises of eternal duration. I feel 
sure that once you have entered the kingdom of 

God, you will find your powers broadening; and as 
you throw out your energies along the outgoing of 

the divine laws, you will find yourself growing virile 

and mighty, taking on the very qualities of the king- 

m of God. 

Ld me, in Conclusion, Urge the members of this 

graduating class to put the accent upon the word 

"FIRST" in this text of ours. You are on life's 
Open threshold. You have been dreaming what 
\our life-work would be; wondering what sib 

you out in the world into which you 
are hastening. You are pausing here this morning, 
amid the environment of this Commencement-time, 
and all this is like the launching of a ship amid the 



Tin: Noblest Qv 25 

Bhouts of the watching multitude. Doubtless the 

thoughtful of you have been looking beyond 

this day of the launching. You are anticipating the 

storms which will sweep over your life's hark when 

once you arc put out fairly to sea. Many of you are 
to have a struggle to secure a firm footing in the 
world ; and with the most of you it will be a 

serious problem to secure the needy raiment and 
the necessary bread. Hence, you will find your- 
selves tempted to keep these divine claims, of which 
I have been speaking, in the background of your 
life. You will say to yourself, "I will think of these 
higher relations to God when I get settled in life. 
I will attend to the more needy questions now." I 
want to assure you that you will never be called on 
in all your career to decide a more important ques- 
tion than the one I put to you this hour. It is vital 
now. It will help you settle other questions which 
may arise. Once get yourself properly related to 
s kingdom, and all other things will easily right 
themselves. I tremble as I look into your faces this 
hour, knowing your possibilities and your dangers. 
You >oung people have so much at stake. There 
are a thousand things you must not do; there are a 
thousand places you must not go; there are a thou- 
sand words you must not speak ; you have too much 



26 Thic Noblest Quest. 

at stake. Listen ! It is in the days of the bloody 
Commune in Paris. Hear the rumble and roar of 
the mob as it sweeps down the Rue de Madelaine 
and out into the Place de Guillotine. Now, they 
are pounding down the gates of the Tuileries gar- 
dens ; and now, they arc thundering at the doors of 
the palace. They drag out Louis XVI. They hind 
him hand-and-foot, and place his head upon the 

cruel block. They touch the Spring, and the knife 

severs the fa m the body. Later, they repair 

n to the palace, and bring out the queen, Marie 

Antoinette. Hie}- lead her to the same cruel block, 

and the same awful fate. Now the} bring out the 

little Dauphin, the heir to the French throne, — he 

who i> to be Louis XVII; but, alas! he never be- 
came such. There he stands with his golden locks 
falling down upon his shoulders, clad in softest vel- 
vet, trembling and fearing for his life. The mob 
shout-: "T guillotine with the Dauphin 1" 

"An end of royalty!" And as they are about to 

lead him to the bloody block, One man in the crowd 

cries, "Hold I Don't do that I You will only 

him to heaven; I '11 tell you what to do/' — but be- 

he could speak, the mob cries, "Vive la Repub- 

liquel Vive la Republiquel To the guillotine with 

the Dauphin!" And when the mob has shouted 



Tin: NOBIAS t Qv 27 

Itself hoarse and has ceased for a moment, this man 

cries out again, "Don't you do that! I'll tell you 

what to do; hand the little fellow over to 'Old 

Meg" 1 (she was the vilest woman in Paris), "and 
let her clothe him in rags, feed him on filth, and 
teach him to lie and to steal and to swear, and all 
the practices of the gamin of the town ; let Old Meg 
damn his soul and send the little devil to hell!" 
Somehow the diabolical suggestion met a respon- 
sive chord in the breast of the cruel mob. And so, 
according to some historians (we know they differ), 
they handed the little Dauphin over to Old Meg. 
She clad him in rags. She fed him with the cast- 
out food gathered from the barrels on the boule- 
vards in the early morning. She taught him to lie, 
and swear, and steal, and all the wicked ways of 
the gamin. But it is said that every now and then 
when Old Meg would have him speak a word a lit- 
tle viler than any he had yet spoken, he would 
clench his little royal fists, and stamp his little royal 
foot, and say, "I will not say it! I will not say it! 
I will not say it ! For I was born to be a king, and 
I will not say it !" 

I repeat to you, there are a thousand places you 
must not go. There are a thousand things you 
must not do. There are a thousand words which 



28 The: Noblest Quest. 

you must not speak. You have too much at stake. 
You, too, are born to be kings and queens ! Seek 
ye that kingdom of God, of which you are rightful 
heirs, and in which on some golden morrow, you 
shall wear your rightful crowns. 



II. 

THE SUPREME MASTER. 

"Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." — John n, 5. 

At the first wedding of earth, the voice of the 
Lord God walking in the garden was heard talking 
face to face with the happy pair. When sin en- 
ured their hearts they went out from His presence, 
and lived in an environment where the accents of 
His voice were never heard. From that dark hour 
man only heard the rushing of God's chariot 
wheels ; but never beheld the glory of His person. 
Amidst the rolling of thunder man heard not His 
voice, but saw only the marks of His finger prints 
on tables of stone. Sheltered in the rock on the 
mountain side, he dared not look as God walked by. 
Through all the centuries man waited for the prom- 
ised coming of His Lord. By faith only did he 
pierce the veil of the future, catch glimpses of His 
beauty and hear the sweet accents of His voice. 
From the time of that first wedding in Eden, until 
that other wedding in Luna, the divine voice had 

29 



30 The Noblest Quest. 

not been heard. Christ honored by His presence, 
the first wedding under the old dispensation, and, 
again by His presence, the first wedding under the 
new. The voice was silenced in Eden, but heard 
once more in Cana. The Master of all worlds was 
there in human flesh to assert His reign and publish 
His law. It was left for a woman — the virgin 
mother — to grasp the great fact of His Divinity, 
and to inform the waiting world that "Whatsoever 
lie saitfa unto you, d<> it." 

My text naturally divides itself into three parts, 

by the emphasis placed upon three words; 

First — "Whatsoever IK' saith unto you, d<> it," 

■ — with the accent upon "IK." There is only One 
who can speak with supreme authority, and man 
ever been seeking that kingly voice. The his- 
tory of the race ha> always been a dark seeking 
God; not only the most enlightened people, 
but the benighted savage of every clime has en- 
1 in this search. There is a divine intimation 
in the soul itself that there LS a God - »mewhere to 
be found. A vine may creep along the ground, but 
its upward-stretching tendrils is a token that it was 
made to climb. The philosopher ECrause affirmed, 
"It i> impossible for man to be in a stage of de- 
velopment so low as not in some manner to inquire 



Tin: Supreme Master. 31 

after the Divine.' 1 Jfacobi held that our feelings 
tend toward God, and to them He reveals Him 
and that a man need but know himself in order to 
find God. "Faith in God is instinctive," Lichten- 
berg exclaimed. "This heavenward tendency is no 
human invention. God made man erect and gave 
his inner eye to glance toward Himself." The very 

spirit in man}' who seek with such diligence to deny 
Him, is one of the strongest proofs that God exists. 
Surely, when men so widely separated by time and 

distance find within themselves an earnest longing 
to find the Originator of their being and the One 
worthy of their love, worship, and service, we arc 
justified in concluding that God, the Creator of us 
all, does not mock His children by inspiring them 
with a longing which can never be satiated. 

Xo atom in all God's material creation has ever 
dared to disobey the slightest law of its Maker. In 
this scientific age we are coming to understand as 
never before, the absolute inviolability of the divine 
law. Every atom in nature exists under the 
supremacy of the divine mandate. It is unthink- 
to consider for a moment the rebellion of an 
atom against the government under which it ex- 
So true is this that no one ever imagined that 
any moral quality could possibly he attributed to 



32 The; Noblest Quest. 

any physical substance for its perfect obedience to 
any physical law. I once rode with an engineer in 
his engine. At one time when the great locomotive 
was drawing the train with great ease and rapidity, 
all the parts working beautifully together, creating 
that humming music so dear to the heart of the 
experience' 1 engineer, he leaned out the window and 
patted the great sides of the mighty engine, and 
affectionately said, "Go it, eld girl; you're doing 
nobly!" I smiled at the man's evident affection for 
;reat machine, and somewhat approved of the 

spirit in which he appreciated the perfection of its 

working; and yet I knew, and you know, that that 
engine deserved no eredit for what it was doing — 

uld not do otherwise. There can never be any 
mora! quality attached to an action which is not a 
voluntary action. I repeat that all parts of God's 

inanimate kingdom are obedient members of God's 

great physical universe. If we take a step higher in 

creation we may also Bee with equal clearness 
that every member of the brute creation yields the 
utmost deference to divine authority. Xo animal, 
either great or small, ever for one moment enter- 
tained rebellion in its heart We say, all its acts 
are instinctive. We mean by that that it acts from 
a force without it — superior to it and above it, and 



Tn i. Suprem i. Master. 

as the result of its own individual reasoning. 
i explains the accuracy and perfection of many 

ns of the brute creation which astonish and 
mystify us. Animals seem to be able to do with 
ease what the highest human intelligence can not 
even comprehend. Who has not been appalled at 

the homing instinct of the pigeon, and the keen 
tl and scent of many of the lower forms of 
animal life. The bee constructs its comb, the stork 
builds its nest on high, the beaver constructs its 
dam, — all in harmony with the law of God stamped 
upon its own nature, against which it is incapable 
of rebellion. Xo thoughtful person ever seriously 
accuses any brute of performing a wrong action. 
Xo sane man ever grows angry at the action of a 
t. It does what it does because of the supreme 
law of God acting upon it; and it does well, not be- 
it wants to ; nor ill, becauses it desires to ; but 
what it does it does because it must. There is no 
element of voluntariness in its action ; and hence, 
there is no moral quality attached to anything 
which it does. Let us remember, then, that atom 
and beast alike are obedient to the divine law, and 
incapable of choosing to rebel against it. 

Man alone, of all God's earthly creation, is the 
one creature capable of knowing wdiat his Maker 
3 



34 The Noblest Quest, 

would have him do, and then left free to obey or 
not, as he shall elect. Man is coming more and 
more to find himself penetrated and surrounded by 
the edicts of his Divine Master. He has long since 
learned that he may obey these laws or not. He 
lias learned how to pit one law against another, and 
make the lower law give way in the presence of 
the higher. He 1 learned that if he choose 

he may interject his will against the outgoing of 
the divine mandate, and thereby suffer the conse- 
qtieno 5. He has long since learned that his very 

his obedience to some of the laws 

L Many of the divine laws are kept for 

purely selfish purposes. He has learned that fire 

burns, and water drowns, and p<>i-<m kills, lie has 

irned tl < that his own powers can only 

1 to their highest efficiency when work- 
in-' in harmony with the divine law. lie long since 
discovered his own weak strength; but he has 
i* the lever and the pulley and the 
wedge. And away back in the dawn of history he 
learned how, by working in harmony with the 
divine law, t<> cut giant rocks from the quarry and 
-truet the time-defying pyramids. Long aj 

he learned how to spread his sail and make the very 

ongoing t the wind do his bidding. Later, 



The Supreme Master. 

be learned how to wed the fire to the water, and 
when the child of su-am was born, to harness it to 

his machine and make it his abject slave. In these 

later times he is beginning to understand the mys- 
terious forces of electricity, SO that he has made the 
very electric fluid his errand hoy to carry his mes- 
- from house to house, from city to city, and 
from land to land around the world. The great 
scientific discoverers of our time have long since 
learned that if they would perform the wonders 
which are astonishing the men of our time, they 
must discover the secret laws of nature and work 
in harmony with them. Indeed, it can be said that 
our proud modern civilization is due to nothing 
more nor less than the discovery of God's law and 
absolute obedience thereto. 

The human being has made a study of himself 
and discovered that he is a compound creature, com- 
posed of things which are physical, intellectual, and 
spiritual. lie has come to understand something of 
the laws which regulate his physical being, his men- 
tal action, and his moral nature. He has discovered 
that God has distinctly legislated for each depart- 
ment of his nature. TTence, he has learned to con- 
struct his geologies from a study of the rocks; his 
botanies from a study of the flowers ; and his as- 



36 Thb Noblest Quest, 

tronomies from a study of the stars. He has 
learned much of physiology and hygiene and ma- 
teria medica. He has also, with that rare power 
given him, divorced himself from himself, and stood 
off and studied his own mental action, lie has 
watched his own mentality in all its delicate and 
subtle action; and hence he has been able to con- 
struct his psychologies. He has [earned that what 
man calls the laws of logic, Or a kind of mental 

■:. is nothing more nor less than the opera- 

I i the divine law in the realm of the human 

intellection. The peculiarity of our time is this, — 
that now. as never before, psychology is coming 
to be almost an Hence, I ine need not read 

onh his Bible t irer that God has as surely 

I for man's moral nature; let him study 

of his own action; let him hecomc 

familiar with the moral qualities in all that he says 

and does; let him keenl; ft the promptings of 

i wn conscience, and then, in addition thereto, 

familiarize himself with the moral qualities in the 

act> of his fellows, and he will he convinced that 

there IS a law of gravitation there 

is a law I if the soul. 

Now, also, the thoughtful man, who lias marie 
which I have referred, also has 



'I'm': Supreme Master. 37 

come to discern thai the laws governing these 
various realms arc equally authoritative. Spiritual 

and intellectual laws arc no less mandatory 
and authoritative that the laws which regu- 
late in the realm of matter. In this age, 
which may well he called the age of law, because 
man recognizes as never before the authority of 
the divine, it is well for us to remind ourselves that 
God is as arhitrar}' in his requirements, He is as 
insistent upon His laws being kept and obeyed in 
the realm of morals as in the realm of physics. As 
surely as there is a law that says that bodies shall 
attract each other according to their size and dis- 
tance, so God says that, "Except ye repent, ye shall 
perish." God has stamped the moral law in our 
natures and printed it in our Bibles, and no thought- 
ful man will repudiate the rightful authority of his 
God in the realm of morality any more than he will 
question the authority of his God in the realm of 
matter. 

The facts in the case warrant me in the utterance 
of this bold assertion : that God places the utmost 
stress on obedience to those laws which govern the 
highest realm of our being. I make this assertion 
based on two facts; the first is this: The method 
employed in declaring the laws which govern the 



38 Tpir Nobi^st Quest. 

various realms of our being. Those laws which 
have to do with our lower nature, which touch only 
our physical and temporal being, are left for us to 
discover for ourselves. We have been learning 
through the centuries the laws which regulate our 
physical being. In fact, every new-born man is left 
largely to discover for himself that fire will burn 
him, and that Certain foods do not agree with him, 
and that there arc a thousand things which he must 

lo, if he would maintain his healthy well-being. 
Even when we enter the realm of the intellect, 
where law reigns as supremely as elsewhere, we 

ver that the great laws which Control our men- 
tal action are left entirely to OUT own discover)' of 

them. But as soon as we step up into the high and 

lofty realm of our moral and spiritual nature, we 
are brought face to lace with laws which are not 

left t" be discovered by mere accident or experi- 
ence; but which, being the expression of the divine 

will concerning us, are in harmony with the pure 

and holy character of our supreme Master, and are 
only to be known by us when Cod speaks forth the 

truth directly in our hearing. Jn the dawn of 

human history, Cod revealed His will to men in 

direct ways, of which we now know little. ( )ne 
thing is sure, — they were not left in doubt as to 



Tin; Supreme Master. 39 

what was the will of God concerning their moral 
action. There came a time when God gave them in 
tangible form on tables of stone the written word 

which was to rule for all time the moral action of 

God's intelligent human creation. In the provi- 
dence of God, there has been placed in our hands 

in a language we understand, in a way we can com- 
prehend, so simple that "a warfaring man, though 
1, shall licit err therein," the laws of our eternal 
God, which are to regulate our moral action and 
keep us in harmony with the divine will. Physical 
law and mental law may be stumbled on by the 
casual searcher after truth; but when man would 
act in matters in which character and destiny are 
involved God would have those actions controlled 
and regulated by a clear-cut law, about which man 
shall in no way be in doubt. And so, I argue that 
God attaches supreme authority and importance to 
His spiritual laws, because of the peculiarity of 
the method employed in declaring them. 

The second fact which leads me to the conclu- 
sion I have just reached is, that the rewards and 
punishments connected with the observance or vio- 
lation of the higher laws, are such as to make clear 
that God attaches greater importance to their ob- 
servance than to the laws which regulate in the 



40 The Noblest Guest. 

lower realms. It is a serious matter to violate any 
law of God. Every law of the Eternal is com} 
of two parts, — the precept and the penalty. If one 
violate the law, the precept must act, and the vio- 
lator suffer the penalty ; or, the precept must react, 
and the government of God suffer. God will main- 
tain the authority and dignity of His reign. G 
law always acts, and there follows reward, or pun- 
ishment, as tl may be. 1 argue that phj 
penalties for the violation of physical laws are n<>t 
commensurable with the penalties attached to the 

• :ioral law. Just so surely as moral de- 
light- to physical delights, so surely 
are the rewards of keeping God's moral law in- 
finitely B to any reward that may come to 
him who keeps merely a physical law. When I 
jider the infinite reward which God attach 
1 right- 3, and the awful penalty which 
He attafc the violation of 1 1 is moral man- 
dates, and compare them with the minor effects 

which follow either the observance or non-observ- 
ance of the physical law, I am led overwhelmingly 

to the conclusion that God place- the utmost Btress 

on obedience to those laws which govern man's 
highest being. 

All this which I have been saying leads me now 



Tm: Supreme Master. 41 

ic conclusion, that every wise man will be obe- 
dient to tho divine voice, disregarding, if need be, 
all other authority. Whatsoever He saith unto him, 

the wise man will do. 

We arc apt to think more of man's law than of 

God's law. Man}- a citizen prides himself upon his 
obedience to the civil law, who lias no shame in 
declaring that he is disobedient to God's law. Fool- 
ish men think that the}- will stand nncondemned 
before the final bar of the Eternal, because they 
have been on earth erood citizens, kind husbands, 
indulgent fathers, congenial neighbors. There is 
current among men the notion that social and civil 
respectability are sufficient. Whereas, in truth, 
every thoughtful man ought to see that no man can 
stand before God who has bent the knee to mere 
social or civil requirements, in order to maintain 
himself in some degree of petty respectability, who 
at the same time has lifted his puny arm in rebellion 
against Jehovah, and has defied the very laws of 
the Almighty. 

There is in all of us too great a sensitiveness to 
the opinion which men may have concerning us. 
We are all over-anxious to appear well before our 
fellows. We want to make a good impression upon 
our kind. We wear our best clothes in company. 



42 Tin; Noblest Qukst. 

We keep the brasses on our front door shining. We 
put our best foot forward. We have our company 
manners. We want to be on the popular side. And 
there are those among us wdio fear more the os- 
tracism of some social leader which may shut them 
out from the so-called "smart set" or coveted social 
and who yet, at the same time, have 1 no fear 
of God's condemnation and are not sensitive to the 
opinion which the Supreme Master may ha\ 
them. 

Too many of us are apt to have more pride in 
the thought that we deal justly to our fellow-men; 

that we alwj e thirty-six inches to the yard, 

and pay one hundred cents on the dollar, and are 
absolutely square in all our relations in business 

life, than we have pride in the fact that we deal 

justly with the God who created us, who redeemed 

and keeps US, and in whom we live, 

move, and have our being. What can be said Strong 

enough in condemnation of him who feels proud 

that lie is grateful to his fellows, and has no stini;- 
•hame < >ver his own ingratitude towards 

God? Many a man in dying has said to me in 

for his having left God out of all his 

Jits, "I have wronged no man," — as though 

that were a sufficient excuse for having wron-ed 



Thk Supreme m kstbssu 43 

God all his life. Ld us ever remember that the 

whole keynote of th< I 1 IS Blimmed Up in that 

remarkable utterance of Peter: "Therefore, let all 

the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath 
made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both 

Lord and Christ." Mark the emphasis upon that 
word "Lord," which means Master. No man can 
comprehend the Eternal, who does not recognize 
God as the Supreme Master. The very heart of the 
religion of Jcsns is the recognition of Him as the 
Supreme Lord of our life. It was Paul who, on one 
important occasion said, "We preach Christ Jesus 
as Lord." Then let us away with the soft senti- 
mentality that concludes that if we wear good 
clothes, move in good society, pay our honest debts, 
stand well with our fellow T s, have sense enough to 
keep a reasonable degree of health, and acquire a 
comfortable competency, we have made out of our 
life a good, fair success. Let us know from this 
hour that that man only is wise, that that life only 
11 lived, which recognizes the supreme author- 
i the Divine Christ, and which listens to Mary 
as she speaks, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, 
do it" 

»W, let us put the accent upon another word 
in this text. Let us put the emphasis upon the 



44 The: Noblest Quest. 

"Whatsoever?' "Whatsoever He saitfa unto you, 
do it." That means that we are expected and re- 
quired to obey the divine voice in all things. 

Some of us are willing to "pay tithe of mint, 
anise, and cummin;" but omit the weightier mat- 
ters of the law. There are those of us who are 
willing to do those things which do not require 

. sacrifice. If we can do anything which will 
not interfere with our pleasure, our comfort, our 
convenience, or our business, we will do it. If the 
weather will not endanger our health, we will go 
to church and honor God by cur presence in I lis 
sanctuary. If our business arrangements do not in- 
terfere, we will even give an hour some week-day to 

service of God's church. If our social en- 
do not interfere, we will even let God 

have i in- hour of one evening in the week, to at- 
tend prayer-meeting. But we must not be expected 

t<> make much sacrifice in doing the will of our 
Supreme Master. 

There are others of us who are willing to pay, 
but we are unwilling to pray. We do that which is 
easiest It requil effort or 'consecration upon 

our part t<> pay one dollar than to make one prayer. 
Every church has in it people who would far rather 



Tm. Supreme Master i.s 

give their money than lend their voice to lead in 
public prayer. 

And there arc those who arc willing to pray, 

but arc not willing t«> pay. It seems to them so 

much cheaper and easier to talk than to make any 
sacrifice in the way of a monetary gift. Every 

church has in it people who can pray and pay, but 
who prefer to pray rather than pay; who somehow 
seem to think that their punctilious performance of 
religious service will excuse them from making any 
sacrifice of their worldly possessions. I am sure I 
am not astray when I say that this supreme mandate 
of our Lord and Master includes both kinds of 
service: that, if we can not pay and can pray, we 
are to do that which we can ; but that if we can pay 
and pray, we are to do both. We do not rid our- 
selves of one obligation by performing the other, — 
''Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.'' 

Some are willing to do some great thing, but 
fail to do the little things required. There are many 
people ambitious to do some great thing in life that 
will render them conspicuous as a devoted servant 
of the living God. Let us at this point remind our- 
selves that after all it is easier to do a great thing 
than a little thing for God. The great things are 



46 The Noblest Quest, 

usually done under the glare of the public eye, and 
under the inspiration of some great occasion, and 
the thing done stands out with great prominence 
before the eves of all. The little things in life are 
done ofttimes in secret, with no hope of reward, 
with no impetus given by admiring friends and on- 
lookers ; but done simply and purely from a high 
Sem luty and d< need tO be re- 

minded that the things most praised by our Master 

were done by obscure disciples in ways modest and 

undemonstrath lb' commends one, who has 

gained eternal renown, because he gave simply a 

CUp of cold water in II is name. (Mice a woman 

bmkc an alabaster h >x of spikenard on 1 [is feet, and 
His praise of the act has filled the whole earth, like 
the perfume that filled the room. Once a poor 

widow cast her two mites into the treasury, and the 

Master 3 • ha- recorded that act for all time, 

Cause those two little mites made jingling music 

that day in the Temple treasury. 

The fact is, that the greatest heroes in human 

history are the unsung hi We hear now and 

then of some hero wh< • astonishes men by the dar- 
ing of his deed, and the unselfishness of his action; 

but there are no books voluminous enough in which 
to have recorded the heroic acts done by God's quiet 



Tin; Supreme Master* 47 

an»l unknown heroes in almost every home in the 
land. The fad is, that it is the performance of the 
little duty thai develops the great characters. The 
deed may make a big reputation, but the big deed 
only made possible by the performance of the 

little deeds, repeated over and over again in the 

quiet, unseen places of daily life. 

A mother received a letter of congratulation 

upon the heroic deed performed by her son in an 
hour of his country's danger; a deed which brought 
to that son immortal renown ; but she, answering 
the letter to a friend, said, 4i I was not surprised at 
what my boy did ; it was just like him. It was no 
surprise to me." 

So let us remember that our characters, which 
are to constitute our real selves for eternity, are 
taking on shape and beauty by the strict observance 
of the divine law, — in the little as well as in the big 
things of our daily living; and that there is a sub- 
lime philosophy in the requirement of our Supreme 
Master, in His requirement of our observance of 
His law, even to the minutest detail. Each of us 
needs to obey the injunction of Mary, "WhatSi 
I le saith unto you, do it.' 1 

Now, let US put the accent on the third word — 
"Whatsoever He saith unto YOU, do it" The 



48 The; Noblest Quest. 

voice is personal and addressed to you. Xo man 
can lose himself in the mass, or the crowd. God's 
law applies to each man. It conies to individuals 
and not to masses. When we consider how God 
has legislated for the generation, life, and propaga- 
tion of the minutest, infinitesimal animalcule, 
myriads of which may live in a drop of water hang- 
ing pendant from your finger-tip, it is not so hard 
for us to understand how the eternal God may l< 
islate for man made in His image. If God knows 
how to reach the smallest insect and legislate for 

his circumscribed life, how much more does He 

know how to reach the individual life of every man, 

and make laws which will govern, save, and uplift 
him! Do not think, my brother, that there is any 
likelih rl< n deed in any crowd. 

It will be <>1 : "action t< » you t«» be consumed 

in the great hol knowing that a thousand 

others like you have been consumed in the flam 

Rest assured that no reward can come t<> any vast 

multitude in which you are included without JTOUT 

having some personal delight and pleasure at the 

.nd consummation* Y< n individual, stand 

cut al<»ne ] h is to give an account 

I to the Eternal. Remember that God, the 
Supreme Master, has spoken directly to you by Hi- 



Tin; Supreme Master. 49 

Holy Spirit to your conscience, giving you to know 

what your duty is. He has not left it alone to an- 
other; but lie, Himself, has stepped within tin 
ered inclosurc of your own Conscience, and in a 
way that you Can not explain, and yet, in a way 
which you may feel and know, he has communi- 
cated His will to your soul. And then, by His re- 
vealed will in His written Word, lie has come di- 
rectly to your own life and spoken to your own 
spirit. He has made His will so clearly known in 
that book we call the Bible, that you, unlettered it 
may be and unlearned, may know enough of what 
His will is concerning you, to find your way 
through this world to another, — out of darkness into 
light. Furthermore, He has spoken to you by the 
voice of a living ministry, and He has sent within 
the sound of your hearing the voice of one called to 
that splendid mission, — of warning and entreating 
\ou to keep His holy law. And in addition to His 
Spirit, His Word, and His ministry, by His provi- 
dential dealings with you, He has spoken to your 
heart In some business disaster, in some hour of 
personal illness, in some clouded day when your 
1 one has been laid cold and silent in the casket, 
— when other voices have been hushed, God's voice 
4 



5o The: Noblest Oukst. 

lias come to you, warning you, calling you, pleading 
with you to follow Him and be saved. 

I ask you to-day, are you counted among those 
who are obeying, or among those who are defying 
God's law? Your success here and now. as well 
as your success there and hereafter, all hinge upon 
your answer to this question, "Are you obedient or 

bedient to the Supreme Master?" 

I heard not long ago of a switchman who saw 

his little child playing in front of the coming ex- 
press en the main line over which the train was 
pass It was te for him to throw the 

switch. It was tOO late for him t<> rescue the child. 
it was t<>o late for the child to attempt to leave the 
track. And so, with Overpowering voice, he cried 
to the little one, as the train came thundering down 
the track, "hie down!" The child, trained to obe- 
dience, did as the father bade her, and immediately 
Opped prone between the ties. The train passed 
over the little one in .safety. Obedience had saved 
the .child. 

. men and women, who hear me this day, your 
Supreme Master speaks to you, "Whatsoever lie 

saith unto Y< IU, do it." If you obe\' Him, you will 

saved! [f you disobey Him, you will be lost! 



III. 

A SHAMELESS JEW. 

u l am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it 
is the power of Cod unto salvation to every one 
that believeth" — Rom. i, 16. 

Who said that? The value of a thing depends 
ly upon who says it. Words may be bullets, 
but character must be the powder back of them to 
them projectile force. These words I have 
spoken have been hurled around the world and 
across eighteen centuries of time. The man be- 
hind the message is as important as the man be- 
hind the gun. Who spoke them? Paul. Tell me, 
who was he? 

He was a Jew, with Jewish prejudices. That 

means that he had the notion that God was partial 

and cared more for the Jew than for all the world 

beside. He had been brought up to believe that his 

God was a great Jew and had granted special privi- 

- and prerogatives to the Jewish people, and 

had passed over in His regard all the other nations 

arth. It was one of the most difficult tasks 

5i 



52 The: Noblest Quest. 

Jesus had to perform to get the Jewish disciples 
to be willing to carry the glad message to the peo- 
ple who dwelt beyond Jewry. There was not a 
member of the early Apostolic College tall enough 
to look over his Jewish prejudices and become an 
apostle to the Gentiles. The)- were unlearned, ig- 
norant men, with not only the prejudices of the 
Jew, but with the prejudices of ignorance. Most 

them Carried with them to their graves the smell 

of fish about their garments. When God would 
select a Jew t<> become a messenger to the Gentiles, 

it was nea select the most cultivated, broad- 

minded Jew of that time. And BO, a man who had 
been brought up in the learning of the Jews, and 

at the same time filled with all the knowledge of the 
classic sehools of his time, was the one man se- 
lected, paration from his fel- 
lows and lonely training in Arabia, t<> carry the glad 
m< g beyond. This man as a Jew 
Sed of the Jew's spiritual insight; for the 

Jews, through long generations of training, had 

me to think much of the spiritual and the eternal. 
Just as the Roman had a genius for government, 
and the Greek had a genius for philosophy, SO the 
ancient Jew had a genius for religion. lie, by 
the improvement of the opportunities given him, 



A Shameless Jew, 53 

had developed his spiritual nature far away and 
beyond anything to be found among the Gentile na- 
tions. This Jew who wrote these words, while 

1 of the Jewish prejudices and trained in 
the Jewish schools, was also trained in the knowl- 
edge of the Greek philosophies and literatures and 
was possessed of a keen spiritual vision which en- 
abled him to see things which are invisible. This 
sort of a Jew, surely, was well qualified to express 
an opinion upon almost any matter. 

Paul was not only a Jew r , but a Roman citizen. 
He had been born in a Roman province. From his 
boyhood he was familiar with the sight of marching 
Roman legions, bearing aloft their victorious eagles, 
and also familiar with the sound of the rumbling 
chariot wheels. His parents, evidently, w r ere peo- 
ple of wealth and opportunity, and w T ere citizens of 
the Roman Empire. This fact gave to their son 
equal prerogatives and privileges as a citizen in the 
great Roman government. He had grown up pos- 
sessing a pride begotten of the fact that he was a 
part of the great empire which had cast up its roads 
in all parts of the known world, and had made all 
nations tributary to the government wdiose capital 
was on the Tiber. If any man of his time knew 
what Roman power was, it was Paul. 



54 The Noblest Quest. 

Moreover, Paul was a Greek scholar. He knew 
the best which the unaided human mind had 
achieved. He had thought out all the Greek philos- 
ophies and was perfectly familiar with the best 
thoughts of the great minds which made Greece 
forever memorable. The poets were at his finger 
tips, and he could quote them as easily as he could 
his Isaiah or his David. Xo man lias ever read his 
letter to the Romans in the original who has not 
been impressed with the remarkable command he 
had of the Greek vernacular, ('.reck scholars will 
bear me witness that there has Come down to 118 
from ancient times DO Greek manuscript BO idio- 
matic and difficult to translate into modern English 
Greek of Paul; especially his letter to the 

Romans. 

Knowing now who this man was who wrote 
these remarkable words, I fancy 1 hear some 

Roman ask him, "What are you not ashamed of, 
Paul?" and he answers unblushingly, "1 am not 
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" He replies: 

"What I The Gospel of Christ,— of Jesus of Xaz- 
areth? Why; he wa> a Jew, and you being a Jew 

yourself, know that He was rejected and crucified 

at the command of your own people. He was Bast 

out by His own folk and despised by the orthodox 



A Shamkucss Jew. 55 

Churchmen of His day. No man in all Jewish his- 
tory ever had harsher things to sa; pectable, 
well-reputed Jews in Jerusalem than He did. The 
best people of His own time were glad to get rid 
of Him, and they finally brought Him to the most 

ignominious death. ! [OW can it be that a cultivated, 

educated Jew, like yourself, can have any dealings 
with a despised Xazarene ? Why, Paul, He v. 
Jew, and you, as a Roman citizen, can not claim 
fellowship with a despised member of a race whom 
the Romans themselves, by the exercise of the 
power they had in Palestine, put to death. To be 
sure, the Jews commended it, but the representative 
of the Roman Government was the legal authority 
which uttered the decree and accomplished His 
crucifixion. You are proud of your Roman citi- 
zenship, and do you not recall that it was your own 
nation that sanctioned and authorized the putting 
away of this very man whom the Jews had cast out? 
Why, Paul, He was a Jew, and you, as a cultured 
Greek scholar, familiar with Socrates and Plato 
and all the deepest learning of the most cultivated 
people in human history, — how can you accept the 
teachings of a Galilean carpenter, of whom it is 
well known He never went to school? He was 
brought up in an obscure village, and was known 



56 The Noblest Quest. 

as an untutored peasant. He never traveled beyond 
the confines of His own little country, and knew 
nothing of the great world of thought that lay be- 
beyond the sky-line of His own little world. And 
here are you expressing yourself as not ashamed of 
such a man, and are asking US who dwell here amid 
the glori an Empire, surrounded by 

all the evidences of Greek culture and learning, to 

believe in such a fellow. Tell me, Paul, why is it 
that you, a Jew, are not ashamed of the Gospel of 
Christ r 

I hear him say, "Well, if yotl press the question 
J will tell y<>u. I am not ashamed of the Gospel 

of Christ fur three reasuns : First, because 'it is the 
]h »wer of God.' " 

The dumb brute may quail in the presence of the 
Coming storm and recoil instinctively from the pres- 
ence of coming disaster; but man, of all God 9 s 

creatures, is able to appreciate the sublimity of 
's power in operation. There have been three 

experiences in my life in which I was filled with 

awe. In the earlier years of my ministry, I saw a 

western cyclone, and only those of you who have 

through a like experience have been impn 

with the awful, immeasurable power of the ongoing 
forces of the invisible wind. Since that day I have 



A Shamkucss Jew. 57 

been convinced that more than wind in motion pro- 
duces the terrible havoc. I am inclined to the opin- 
ion that there arc electric forces yoked to the mov- 
ing wind, and that much of the destruction is 

caused by electric power. That day T saw vast 
forest trees go down like grain before the reaper. 

One day I crawled under the American falls at 
Niagara, and by the help of my guide found my 
way down on a rock at the base of the overleaping 
torrent. As I looked up through the mist at that 
thundering cataract, my soul was filled with awe, 
in .contemplation of the mighty power displayed. 

On another day I had climbed up the steep sides 
of the cone of the volcano of Vesuvius, and stood 
on the edge of its yawning maw. At frequent in- 
tervals there would be a tremendous explosion of 
gas in the regions below, hurling great rings of 
smoke and vapor into the sky above my head. Then 
silence would follow r for an interval, and then a 
tremendous explosion would come which hurled 
molten lava and great masses of stone, red-hot, for 
hundreds of feet into the air above me, most of 
which fell back into the yawning mouth of the vol- 
cano. Standing there, with the earth trembling be- 
neath my feet, and noting the tremendous explo- 
sions, hurling vast tons into the air for hundreds of 



58 The: Noblest Qur.sr. 

feet above my head, I was impressed with the tre- 
mendous power that God had locked up in the 
bowels of the earth. These three experiences were 
of such a character as to stir the stolid soul of an 
American Indian. 

But the thoughtful soul in its higher moods 
ved even more in contemplating the divine power 
which is manifested in the silent and orderly OUt- 
'.id on the river's brink 

and note its sweeping current rushing on to the 
sea, and try, if you can, to measure the power it 
represents. Stand on some era-- on the ocean shore 
and note the irresistible flood as it comes in with 
the tide, and meaj ' you can, the power that 

pushes th( " water toward 

the shore, Go down into the bowels of some great 
transatlanti iship and see the working of 

its mighty engines as the steam expands in its great 
stram-< turning those mighty shafts to which 

attached the revolving screws which hurl thou- 
sands of tons of steel and freight and human life 

at the rate of twenty knots an hour, in the face of a 
driving northwestern storm, and you get some idea 

the awful p k)d has locked Up in the silent 

for< overheated water. The thoughtful man 

will even be more impressed with the power of 



A Sham i;i.i;ss Jr.w. 59 

God as he stands out under the open sky in the 
budding springtime, and sees grasses, flowers, and 
taking on the new green color of the spring, 
and contemplates how, by the marvelous attractive 
power of the sun, millions of tons of sap and veg- 
etable matter are being lifted up against the law of 
gravitation, and turning all brown nature into liv- 
green. Who lias not felt his soul stirred as he 
stood on some winter night and looked up into 
the face of the winter stars and attempted to com- 
prehend what it must mean to hold those glittering 
worlds in their orbits, and keep each one moving ac- 
cording to its appointed schedule, without jarring 
or clashing against its fellows? O, the awful pozcer 
of God! Let us remember that Paul was writing 
to Roman citizens, who, like himself, and yet, pos- 
sibly, with larger opportunities of observation, were 
familiar with the crushing, overwhelming power of 
that vast empire. lie wants those people to know 
that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, 
because it is the power of One vaster than the pam- 
pered emperor in the palace, — the power of the 
Eternal God. 

Tint Paul says, "I have a better reason than that. 
Tt is this: 4 Tt is the power of God unto salvation.'' 
It is a grand tiling to create; to hurl worlds from 



60 The Nobi^si: Qu 

the finger tips and fill the empty spaces with burn- 
ing suns. Our God is so great that it is easy for 
Him, being the Master of all matter and the origin 
of all life, to create a world. It would be easy for 
Him to grasp a world like ours in His omnipotent 
palm and crush it as you would an egg-shell in 
your hand, and then blow the meteoric fragments 
into space with His omnipotent breath, and then, 
at His will, reassemble all its parts and Bush it with 
life and beaut>'. No man who has the gift of fancy 
has failed I the day when God, walk- 

uties of lli> newly created world, 
made what was n. Merful than any unthink- 

ing thing He had created. — a man in IIi> own 
ima I after His Own likeness, standing erect 

with eyes so set in his head that he c<>uld see the 
1 as the ground beneath him; 
a man linked by his Qesh to the earth beneath him, 
and linked by ::t to the God above him, — 

the connecting link between the highest heaven and 

the low ;h. That wa> a wonderful day when 

I made man. There is a day, however, which 
appeals with greater power to the thoughtful than 
the day on which man first walked the earth. There 
came a day in human history when nature, all so 
beautiful and bright on that day when man's eyes 



A Sham bless Jew. 61 

first beheld it, became black and lowering. The 

very sun clothed its face in paill and shame. 'Idle 
earth reeled and reeked and broke, and all nature 

went into blackest mourning, because of the great 

tragedy that was being enacted on a lonely hill out- 
side a city gate. God once displayed power in creat- 
ing the world and peopling it with intelligent beings, 
but He displayed a finer power than that seen in 
mere physical forces the day He redeemed a fallen 
race. 

When God would go forth to the conquest of 
evil, and make possible every man's triumph over 
the enemy of his soul, bringing triumph to virtue 
and possible growth in all strength and beauty, it 
required the exercise of a spiritual power finer and 
more potent. We have lived in vain if we have not 
discovered that there is a power greater than any 
physical force that ever acts in the universe of mat- 
ter. 

I will tell you wdiat is finer than the foam- 
ing leap of the torrent from the crag. It is 
the rush of a man's courage along the fearful 
path of some high and holy duty. I will tell 
you what overtops the grandeur of an Alpine 
peak at sunset. It is integrity, resisting temp- 
tation. I will tell you what is more glorious than 



62 The Noblest Quest. 

a Norway twilight, which turns mountain, plain, 
and fjord into the softest tints of violet. It is love, 
giving and blessing without stint, like your mother's. 
I have often thought that I would love to have 
been one of that little company in that storm-tossed 
gfht on Galilee : to have felt the thrill of 
the danger and the loneliness, and then to have 
known the ecstasy of beholding my Master coming 

through the storm, walking on the sea as on solid 

pavement; gathering up those turbulent waves, as 
a mother presses her babe to her bosom, and speak 

them infc I'm I have seen a grander thing 

than that ( toe day my life's hark was sorely to 

and a tempest swept down Over my soul with ter- 
rify in t, and it seemed to me that T would he 

ingulfed. Then it v. same Jesus com- 

ing b i me < >n the waves, speaking peace to my heart, 

bringing me out into an open and delightful haven 

where it has been a joy to dwell ever since* O, be- 
lieve me; what 1 want — what you want — IS to find 

the "pow< r unto salvation." 

You and I are naturally rebellious. Our wills 
array themselves against God. They are perv 

they Choose evil rather than good. Show me the 

r that can not break, but persuade my rebel- 
lious will to run out along the line of the divinely 



\ Sham BUSS JEW. 

appointed ways and choose those things which make 
for my own soul's betterment, and I will hail it as 
the "power i." 

¥ou and I have been polluted by sin. We have 
known the sting of it and the shame of it. We may 

have tried a thousand ways to rid ourselves of it, 
and failed. In spite of ourselves we have dripped 
with iniquity. Show me a stream that can cleanse 
me from all sin, and I will hail it as the sure power 
of God. lie only can do a work like that. 

You and I rind ourselves bent toward evil. It is 
more easy to do wrong than right. We find that 
when we would do good, evil is present with us. In 
spite of all our holy desires and insistent determina- 
tions we find ourselves unable to maintain our in- 
tegrity, keep our souls wdiite, and live up to the 
ideals which we know should dominate our lives. 
Show me a power that can keep me from falling. 
Ah, first, show me a power that can change my 
human nature and make it easier for me to do right 
than it is to do wrong. A remarkable editorial ap- 
peared some time ago in The Pliiladclpliia Record, 
the purport of which, in substance, is this: It is the 
purpose of a recent publication — "The Autol 
raphy of a Criminal" — to bring under discn- 
the question whether, with the best of all influences, 



64 The Noblest Quest. 

it would be possible to overcome the criminal tend- 
encies of certain men, and make of them respect- 
able members of society. This question has been 
answered in the negative by science ; and, indeed, 
this answer is obvious. Although there are those 
who assume that character can be molded, the lead- 
ing psychologists maintain that every-day observa- 
tnust prove the persistence of inherited defects, 

3S of education and personal example and 

influence. We may reasonably expect from the 

splendid system of universal education a great di- 
minution of nee, and also a wider extension 
manners, but there is nothing in the 

world of experience which gives hope of a chaii: 
human nature. That editorial utterance seems like 

a hopeless, but surely it is a very just, conclusion. 

Education and science, no matter to what extent 
they may be carried, will b pelted to confess 

that the}- can not change human nature. There is 
a peculiar individual something in your life which 
makes up its nature and fixes it- supreme choices, 
which neither science nor education can transform. 
This fact should be more frankly conceded by 
scientists and educators. To all who arc making 
bold pretense that human nature can yield to the 
instructions of science and become entirely differ- 



\ Sham i;i.i;ss JEW. 65 

ent, \w commend the frank utterance of The Phil- 
adelphia Record. Science and education may pity 
the poor sin-cursed victims, but they arc compelled 
to say, "We have no help for you." Herein comes 
the necessity and the superiority of the thing of 
which Paul is not ashamed. Its business is to 
change and save fallen human nature. No lease is 
too had for it. ( hir good, kind God docs not intend 
to leave His sinful child hopeless and helpless. He 
has revealed a way of escape. "God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Paul takes this splendid 
truth to cultivated Rome, and exclaims, "I am not 
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power 
of God unto salvation.'' Multitudes of believers in 
that age, and in every age since, have proved the 
truth of that statement. 

I am hastening to the grave along with you. 
Somewhere there ahead of us — we know not how 
far — an open casket and a yawning tomb are await- 
ing our arrival. I do not want to lie in that casket, 
or be buried in that grave. Show r me a power that 
will triumph over death and the grave, and lift un- 
enfranchised spirit into the realms of immortality, 
and I am sure that that power must be the power of 
5 



66 The Xoblkst Qri:sr. 

God. Paul gloried in the Gospel because it saves 
men from the ravages of the tomb. 

You and I are getting more and more lonely as 
we walk life's journey, because the friends of our 
youth are dr behind and leaving us to tread 

the pathway unaccompanied. Those who started 
with us on the journey have long since said their 
farewells, and OUT hearts have ached for the sound 
of vanished and the touch of hands which 

:illed. Sh«»\v me a power that can, » >n ><>me glad 

morrow, restore to me my loved ones, and I will 

know that it must be the "Power of God unto sal- 
vation." 

[do D ler — d<> you? — that Paul exults in 

such a Savior. I do not wonder that in view <>f 

reasons, 1. "1 am not ashamed ni the 

el of Christ, because it is the power of God 
unto salvati* 

And then, as though these two reasons w 
not enough, Paul a third reason why he is not 

ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. II- . "Be- 

cause it is the power alvation to every 

one that believeth." Thank God for a Gospel ade- 
quate to J that wants it. The narrow 
sectarian may rejoice in a Gospel that saves his own 
folk, but Paul -lories in 1 for every believer. 



A Sham i;u.-> Ji.w. 67 

He says: "Wherefore, by one man sin entered into 

the world, ami death by sin, and so death pa 
upon all mem for that all have sinned. Therefore, 

as by the offense of on<j judgment came upon all 

men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness 

ie the free gift came upon all men unto justifi- 
cation of life; for as by one man's disobedience 

man\- were made sinners, so by the obedience of one 
shall man}' be made righteous. Where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound ; that as 
sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace 
reign through righteousness unto life eternal, by 
Jesus Christ our Lord/' No favorite class ; no 
divine partiality; salvation for Jew, for Greek, for 
bondslave and free, for Roman and barbarian. T 
would prove the divinity of this religion of Jesus 
Christ by its world-wide application. Surely, the 
God of all men provides a way of escape for all 
men, and any plan of redemption which He shall 

e, will be all-inclusive. Paul, even Taul the 
Jew, was so saturated with this glorious world-in- 
cluding message that he shouts out, "It is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
Mark that condition of salvation, "to every one 
that believeth." "lie that believeth on the Son of 

hath life." "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is 



68 Tin: NottUBSl Qi 

the Christ, is born of God." "He that believetb on 
the Son of God hath the witness in himself." "Who- 
soever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. " 
Each is left to choose for himself; each by his own 
will power elects himself to belong to that glorious 
company. 

Paul is not ashamed of thi L Why should 

you be? Will you not this day take the Christ into 
your life? It will sweeten all your life's bitter. It 
will strengthen all your life's weakness. It will in- 
life'a hopes and endeavors. It will, 
indeed, pr what it has proven to me, and 

to all that shining h< »t < >f God who have been trans* 

::ned in life, and Uplifted into glory, by it. Some 

day — I know not when — you and I will stand before 
the judgment- 1 will tell you what 

will then be of more importance t'' you and to me 
than that we had gained our millions on earth and 

had our names enrolled on the world's scroll of 
fame. It will be this: Is that Jesus who sits there 
with the marks of the nails in I lis palms and in His 

feet, who is now my Judge, ashamed of me? 



IV. 
THE DIGNITY OF LABOR 

"We arc laborers together with God" — i Cor. hi, 9. 

A visit to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 
at St. Louis will throw remarkable light on that 
statement made by Paul so long ago. Imagine the 
world as Adam found it, and then look at the world 
about us as we see it to-day, and you will see what 
a far cry it is from St. Louis to the Garden of Eden. 
God did not finish the world at creation. He so 
constructed the earth as to leave something for man 
to do, — some weakness to strengthen, some crude- 
ness to culture, some latency to call forth, and thus 
something was left for the mechanical genius of 
man to perform. God buried the uncut crystal in 
the quartz; man polishes the diamond. God laid 
the crude iron ore in its bed ; man out of it con- 
structs a Damascus blade or a modern skyscraper. 
God planted the forests; out of them man builds a 
house or constructs an organ. God made the crab- 
apple ; man develops it into the golden pippin or 

69 



70 The Nobwsst Quest. 

belleflower. God created the wild rose that grows in 
rank profusion ; man develops it into the American 
Beauty. God created the wild horse, but man devel- 
ops it into a Kentucky thoroughbred. The best 
things on earth are the creation of God and man 
working together. So I say the world was not com- 
pleted by God at the time of creation. Every man 
is born absolutely ignorant He may have natural 

tendencies in Certain directions, but his mind is 

practically like a blank sheet ^i paper, upon which 
knowb to be written. He needs teachers. 

Were it not for the enlightening influence of in- 
structors each new generation would grope long in 
the dark. By the aid of instructors each new gen- 
eration cr>mes into of the collected wis- 
dom of the past, and rises tO higher intellectual 

levels. Each teacher is a co-laborer with God. God 
created the mind, and the teacher instructs and edu- 
cates it. 

We are burn spiritual babes, utterly ignorant of 
the great laws of the soul and its development No 
more surely does the intellectual nature require a 

teacher than the spiritual soul needs a preacher, 

God has ordained the preacher to be an instructor in 

righteousness and tO train the soul into all high and 

holy living* Thus the preacher becomes a co-la- 



Tin; I )h.\!TY oi ; I ,ABOIL 71 

r with God in enlightening and saving the souls 
of men. 

All who toil to improve physical, intellectual, 
and moral conditions, are laborers together with 
God. Paul said to Timothy, "Study to show thy- 
self approved unto God, a workman that needeth 

to be ashamed." Herein lies the dignity of all 
honest toil. Every honest laborer is working- with 
If this be so, let no man think meanly of 
himself so long as he toils in any honest field. In 
America we have come to regard all honest toil as 
honorable. We have moved away from the old 
European notion that the so-called gentleman is ex- 
empt from toil. Our American gentleman is as 
anxious to do his part of the world's work as any 
humble laborer with his hands. We place honor 
Upon the man who co-operates with God; turns for- 
ests into cities ; converts the crude ore into the cur- 
rency of the realm ; constructs railways which bind 
all parts of the nation together with bands of steel ; 

tracts ships which sail all seas, and has made 
all the Wonders of modern civilization possible. 

The Christian Church and its ministry assert the 
worth of the laboring man. There is a false notion 
current among some laboring men that the Church 
is out of sympathy with the laborer, and that the 



72 The: Noblest Quest. 

Church is the friend of the rich and the foe of the 
poor. Any student of this problem may quickly dis- 
cover that the great majority of those who are con- 
nected with both Protestant and Catholic Churches 
are workingmen. It is to be deplored that many 
labor unions have their weekly meetings on the Sab- 
bath, and thus discourage their members from 
Church attendance. It is also true that man\' of 
their leaders are Socialists who are nut at all in 
Sympathy with the present r \ and commercial 

>UCh leaders assume to be the mouth- 
pieces of the laboring man, but they really do not 
represent the rank and file of those who toil with 

their hands. These Socialistic leaders would have 

the laboring man believe that the preachers are the 
hireling- of the rich capitalists, and dare not speak 

a word in the interest of those who toil. Thej 

sert that all their sympathy is with tho.se who are 
in comfortable circumstances, and have no heart to 
feel for those who are deprived of the luxuru 
wealth. This is a libel Upon God's noble, self-sacri- 
ficing messengers to men. The rank and file of the 
ministry are true and devoted followers of Jesus 
Christ. They fully understand that they are the 
ministers to all, and must be the friend and coun- 
selor to all classes alike. The real truth is thai in 



Tin; I )ic\ ity OF I ,ABOR, 73 

America today the one class most neglected by the 
Church and ministry is the rich. This so-called fa- 
vored class hold themselves more completely aloof 
from ministerial and Church influences than any 
other class of people. It is as true to-day as when 
JesUS first uttered it, that "Scarcely shall a rich 
man enter the kingdom of heaven." The support, 
the devotion, and the self-sacrifice necessary to the 
maintenance of the Christian Church, all come from 
the working classes. Only here and there are the 
very rich interested in the religious and moral en- 
lightenment of their fellow-men. 

This is the best era in human history for the 
laboring man. His lot is better to-day than ever 
before. Not all hardships are yet removed; but it 
is true that the curse from labor is being lifted. In- 
ventive genius has constructed machinery which is 
doing the work once done by slaves. The human 
mind has come to its mastery, and no invention of 
machinery has made it possible for the work to 
progress without its superintendence. The ignorant 
now and then oppose the increased use of the labor- 
saving machine. Such devices are for the better- 
ment of the race; and although here and there an 
individual may be embarrassed by the introduction 



74 The Xoblkst Oukst. 

of it, yet, on the whole, the race is advanced and 
benefited. 

Our modern life 'confronts conditions never be- 
fore met by any preceding generation. Large sums 
of money have been combined in the construction of 
factories where large quantities of manufac- 
tured goods are produced. The individual me- 
chanic, as he toils in his little shop, can no longer 
compete in the markets with the great factories that 

luce the same C lity at greatly reduced 

Villages and cities have grown up around 

great manufacturing plants, producing a new 

. The em; :id employed have Come 

into iK\v relations witli each Other. A great deal 

of new legislation has been necessary in order to 
adjust properly these relations. We are becoming 

adjusted to the new situation, and I do n,»t wonder 

that in the p: uffering from misunder- 

standing and needless friction. The combination of 
capital to carry on this great business has made it 

r labor also to combine, in order to 

rve and advance its interests. Jn my judg- 
ment, the day will soon dawn when the new world 

will become adjusted to these new conditions, and 

both employer and employed will come to dwell to- 
gether in peace and unit}'; each realizing his de- 



Tin: I )k.m i v <>i- Labor. 75 

pendence upon the other, and that their interests are 
really common and mutual. Even now the leaders 

00 both sides arc recognizing that labor and capital 
sustain to each the same relation that one wing of 
the bird sustains to the other. 

Before we can have peace in the industrial world 
certain great principles must be recognized and 
acted upon by those who employ and by those who 
are employed. I boldly aver that we can not attain 
to that industrial peace so essential to industrial 
health until at least ten principles are universally 
recognized and acted upon. 

The first principle is this : It must be univer- 
sally established that in this free country every man 
has a right to work for whom and for what wage 
he pleases. Compulsory membership in a trades 
union in order to secure employment is un-Amer- 
ican, and should not be tolerated. When I say that 
ever\- man has a right to work for whom he pleases 
and for what wage he pleases, I must of course be 
understood as implying that it takes two to make 
a bargain, and if a man wishes my services and I 
am willing to work for him, and we can agree as to 
the wage, the whole question is to be decided by us 
two arid us alone; no third party has a right to in- 
terfere with us. This, of all countries, ought to be 



76 Tiir, Xubi.kst (Jrr.sr. 

a free country ; but it can not be for the laboring 
man so long as he is not free to enter into an ar- 
rangement for work which is perfectly satisfactory 
to himself. The great majority of laboring men in 
the United States to-day are not affiliated with any 
union. The minority have no right to dictate to 
this vast majority, and fix fur whom they shall 
w< >rk and at what 

Til* 1 principle which must be established 

IS, that every employer must have the right to de- 
cide whom he shall employ, and that the principle 
of the open shop should everywhere prevail. It is 
• un-American b a man to employ wiiom 

he dors not want. The principle of the closed shop 
deprives the cm; of the right to put his own 

son to work if he so wishes it. 1 am fully aware 
that labor unions almost universally insist that un- 
:n can not survive- unless the dosed shop is 
maintained; and yet it is well known that the best 
nized body of laboring men in the world to- 
day is the l.rotherl Locomotive Engineers ; 

and the}' do not stand for the closed shop principle. 

There are excellent I why labor should unite, 

but there is no seiiM v n, much less any prin- 

ciple of justice, in their attempts to dictate whom 
their employers shall hire. 



Th i. Dignity < m l . i» >k. 

In the third place, the principle of compul i 
arbitration should be recognized, and all differences 
between employer and employee be amicably arbi- 
trated. This principle should be especially n 

I m cases where the interests of the whole com- 
munity are at slake. In modern society we arc all 
BO related that we must Consider the rights of others 
in our great congested populations, such as we find 
in our large cities. The right of one is largely in- 
volved in the right of others, and no man lives unto 
himself. In a quarrel between employer and em- 
ployed which interferes with the just rights of the 
whole community, as in the case of a street-car 
strike, involving the stoppage of the whole trans- 
portation system, the w r hole community has a right 
to demand that the difficulty shall be amicably ar- 
bitrated and quickly settled. The fact that many 
of the unions are opposed to legal incorporation, 
thereby making the union legally responsible as an 

nization, has put the whole system of unionism 
in an unfavorable light with many. It is openly 
charged that they will not incorporate because they 
are unwilling to run the risk of being made liable 
in times of trouble. The great difficulty in enforc- 
ing the principle of compulsory arbitration lies 
here, that in most instances capital is incorporated 



78 The Noblest Gl- 

and has a legal standing, and can be held respon- 
sible for the carrying out of the conditions of the 
arbitration ; but the employees are legally irresponsi- 
ble and can not be forced to meet the conditions of 
the settlement Vet I feel sure that the great m 

[ifficulties could be amicably arbitrated if 

honest attempt in that direction should be made by 
1' >urth. The princi: should 

prevail. 1 ital and labor should be organh 

for mutual benefit. I hould -hare with cap- 

ital not only its profits, but also its 

who labor with their hands in the shop should Eed 
that they have a common interest with the men who 
labor with their brain- in the office. The principle 
of C0-< D has been tried successfully in many 

ways, and the industrial millennium will dawn when 

the principle is universally adopted. 

Fifth. Every laborer should be paid the wage 

he earns and not the wage another man earns. Each 

laborer should be paid according to his own worth, 
thus rewarding true merit, and not putting a price 

on laziness or incompefa the case in a 

uniform w ir and h this state- 

ment appears, it is most bitterly opposed by nearly 

every trade union. Two things the trade unions 



Th r Dignity of Labor 79 

deem absolutely essential to the success of their 
cau^c — the closed shop and the uniform wage scale. 
The labor leaders aver that they only stand for a 
minimum scale, and that they insist that every man 
shall be paid a living wage, and that no man shall 
be paid less than that amount. Yet an investigator 
knows that in most instances they have a maximum 
scale, according to which no man is allowed to earn 
more per day than a given sum. In practical op- 
eration the principle is this : every man shall receive 
the same wages, regardless of his merit or com- 
petency. This is but an outcropping of the Social- 
ism which is largely dominant in many unions. The 
disinterested student and onlooker can never be led 
to see that the uniform wage scale is anything else 
than a premium placed on incompetency. 

Sixth. Capital must recognize the right of labor 
to organize for its own protection and benefit ; and 
such laborers should not be discriminated against so 
long as they do not interfere with the rights of 
others. Everywhere and always I boldly insist that 
the labor union has a distinct right to exist. It 
must be admitted that the union has done much 
good. It has improved the shop conditions where 

r is employed. It has improved the dwellings 
in communities where they are owned by the capi- 



80 Tin- Nobles? Qui 

talist. It has rightly shortened the hours of labor 
and justly increased the wages. Such is the cupid- 
ity of human nature that had not laboring men or- 
ganized in self-defense the over-reaching covetous- 
ness of the employer would long before now have 
made the lot of the laboring man unendurable. Too 

much ] given the organized effort 

made by I r the amelioration of the lot of 

laboring men. In all justice it must be admitted 

that the toiler, wh<> has withheld himself from as- 
sociation with the union, has equally shared in the 

prerogative luments, and pi as secured 

Eor him by tli< ration of those who Stood for 

the union principle. I can Bee wherein great dan- 

r the labor union. It has made some mis- 
takes, h has often made blunders. These mis- 
takes and blunders have led the general public to 

t the wisdom and Of the whole 

movement; and ; must not denounce the 

whole organization b sional mis- 

takes. The Church itself would come under uni- 
versal condemnation on this principle! for it is not 
without its mistakes and blunders. As well con- 
demn the Christian Church for the r St. 
Bartholomew and the honor- of the Spanish Infjiii- 



Tn i fv (>!•• Labor. 81 

Bttion, as t« % condemn, wholesale, labor unions be- 
cause of the mistakes some of its leaders have 
made. The crying need of labor unions to-day is 
wise leadership. Unionism can not succeed if its 
members yield themselves to the leadership of 
Socialistic cranks. I pray daily that God may raise 
up wise leaders who may conduct this great army 
of honest toilers into the possession of the rights 
and prerogatives to which they are most justly heir. 
> venth. Xo man must be regarded as possess- 
ing the right to quit his job and hold it at the same 
time. If he refuses to w r ork, he has no right to 
prevent another man from taking up the task he 
has voluntarily laid down. The people have a sense 
of fairness and will never sympathize with those 
who keep others from work. Any man has a right 
to quit his job when he pleases; but he has no right 
to stand by with a club and prevent another man 
from taking the place in which he is unwilling 
longer to toil. The members of the union have a 
perfect right to go on a strike and refuse to labor 
until certain requirements, which they desire, have 
been met; but at that point their rights cease. The 
American people will not stand for the interference 
of union men when others, unbound by their so- 
6 



82 The Noblest Quest. 

cietv, are willing to assume the obligations and re- 
ceive the remunerations of the places they have va- 
cated. 

Eighth. The whole principle of the boycott 
must be condemned. All efforts to call in the aid 
of others, who have no personal grievance, to join 
in the effort to destroy another's business, is both 
un-American and un-Christian. The law can not 
strict in its dealings with such cases. The 

American people will never sympathize with an or- 
ganization which adopts the principle of the boycott 

Ninth, All employees who have been taken en 
during a Strike should be given permanent places, 
and nut turned adrift as SOOU a- settlement is made 
with who threw up their work in the strike. 

I said to a representative body of employers con- 

d with the Builders 1 Exchange in Cleveland, 

not 1' >, that they themselves were guilt 

ting this ju^t and right rinciple. I said 

to them: lr Ybu men who employ labor have fre- 
quently, in times of a Strike, taken on men who 
have Stood by yOU fairly and squarely in the time of 
}Otir trouble, and enabled you to fulfill your con- 
tracts and prosecute your business; and then just as 
soon as the difficulties with your former empl< 
have been adjusted, you have set adrift the men 



Tin: Dignity o* Labor. 83 

who stood by you, and taken back into your employ 
the very men who would have ruined you. Ju 
long as you employers pursue such a course as that 
you may expect to see no end of labor troubles. 
- the viewpoint of an employer your position 
IS untenable, unfair, and unjust. You do the labor- 
man a great injustice, and say to him he must 
be the slave of an organization with which he does 
not care to be affiliated or he will never be able to 
find honest employment in the labor markets of the 
world." 

Lastly. The fundamental principles of Chris- 
tianity must be applied in all capital and labor rela- 
tions, and both sides must obey Christ's require- 
ment: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." I am con- 
vinced that the principle of the Golden Rule, if hon- 
estly applied, will settle all labor troubles. We need 
ever to remind ourselves that we are brethren, chil- 
dren of the same Father, redeemed by the same 
blood, bound for the same judgment-seat, and heirs 
of the same promises. We must not think meanly 
of any man. He is our brother. So when the world 
of labor and the world of capital come to see that 
they are under the same rule of Christ, and that 
each must "look upon the things of others," and 
"do unto others as they would that they should do 



84 The: Noblest Quest. 

unto them," these ugly strivings will disappear ; and 
He, who is Master of all worlds and holds in His 
hands the wealth of the universe ; He who, while 
on earth, was a carpenter and a toiler among the 
sons of men, will establish peace, not only in the 
hearts, but in the busy marts of men. 



V. 

REMEMBER THY CREATOR. 

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth." — Eccl. xn, i. 

THESE are the words of the wisest man who 
ever lived. They were spoken to the youth of his 
time ; but they come to us of our day with the same 
telling potency and power as when they were first 
uttered. 

Let us first inquire why Solomon insists that 
we should remember our Creator in the days of our 
youth. It is because, in the first place, youth is 
peculiarly adapted to the transforming effects of 
conversion. This is true for several reasons. 

First, because the intellect is expanding and in 
a Condition qualified to receive truth. Childhood 
is constantly asking questions. The average child 
IS a walking interrogation point, always wanting to 
know. The little opening mind is as eager for 
knowledge as his stomach is for food. You have 
long ago discovered that a very young child can ask 

85 



86 The Noblest Quest. 

a question which the wisest philosopher is not able 
to answer. I remember in the first years of my 
ministry I was boarding in a home in which there 
was a little boy only six years of age. His mother 
especially charged him that he must not interrupt 
or needlessly visit the minister in his room. He 

I to come and see me. and so when he did come, 
it was always with a purpose. He generally had 

• important question that he wanted answered 

at once, lie was in one <>f my catechetical classes 
for the instruction of children, and what took place 

in the c\ ten aroused deep inquiry within his 

little brain. One day he came into my room and 
said: "Brother Mitchell" (lie always called me 

Brother Mitchell, for. although his mother was a 

I 'resbyterian, he said he was a Methodist ) , "Bn >ther 
Mitchell, is not the Father, Qod?" and I said, "Yes, 
Albert." And then he asked, "Is not the Son, Cod?" 

and 1 replied, "Yes, my hoy;" hut I was then be- 
ginning to SUSpeCt what was t<> follow. He asked 
thru, the third time, "Is not the Holy Ghost, God?" 

and I said, "Surely I" Then he straightened tip 

shoulders, looked me squarely in the eye with a 
look of defiance, and said, "Then, we have three 

Is, haven't we?" It was my task then to un- 
dertake as best 1 could — 1 am sure 1 did not SU< 



Remember Thy Creator. $7 

well — to explain to that little six-year-old child 
something of the mystery of the Trinity. 

At another time the little fellow came bounding 
into my room, and put to me this question: "If 

angels are spirits, what use have they for win. 

I replied that they had n't any wings. Then he re- 
torted: "Every picture that I ever saw of an angel 

had wings. How do you know they haven't got 
any wings?" Then I undertook to explain to him 
that our conceptions of angels were purely imag- 
inative, and no one knew just how an angel looked; 
and that I did not believe that a spirit had any use 
for wings. I do not think I fully satisfied him. 

At another time he said to me, "Brother 
Mitchell, our Bible clown in the parlor on the center 
table does not tell the truth." I said, "I would n't 
talk that way, Albert; the Bible always tells the 
truth." "Yes, but I mean its pictures do not tell 
the truth." I said, "What is the matter with the 
pictures?" "Well, there is a picture down there of 
Daniel in the lions' den, and Daniel stands with a 
lion on each side of him, and his hand on their heads 
and their tongues are lolling out." ''Well," T said, 
"what is the matter with that?" Tie replied, "That 
ain't so; for the Bible says 'God sealed the mouths 
of the lions.' n 



8S The Noblest Quest. 

I state these tilings to show how much wiser is 
the mind of the child than we often suspect. The 
intense hunger of the childish intellect for knowl- 
is pathetic. We grow impatient sometimes 
over their eager inquiries, and yet we must remem- 
ber that this is the era in each life when most of 
ation is gained. J one has said 

that a child will acquire a better knowledge of a 
language during the first six years of its life than 
the wisest linguist Could possibly acquire in any 
succeeding ten years. Solomon wa^ aware of the 
that the best time the great truths of 

and His kingdom imbedded into a man's life 
is in the early l" Ith, when the intellect is 

expanding and is anxious to grasp all knowledge. 

Surely, we are to knew God in this earl}' hour of 
our life if we are t< » know llim well at all. The 
adolescent period, when the youthful mind is hun- 
gry for truth, is the golden hour of opportunity in 
which to pour into the SOUl the rich treasure of sav- 
ing truth. 

And then youth is peculiarly adapted to the 
transforming effects of convc rsion, because the will 
has not become perverted. After all. one's relation 

to his God and his Fellows is a question of will. A 
man's whole life, present and future, is locked up 



Remember Thy Creator. 

in his will. We are largely what we will to be. We 
get largely what we will to possess. The will is to 
the life what the rudder is to the ship. It directs 
and controls the whole course of our being. The 
tragedy of life is this: that by and by the will has 
formed grooves through which we automatically 
act, and our lives become largely automatic. We 
say "we arc creatures of habit." You all know the 
strength of a well-established habit; how hard it is 
to change from one's long accustomed ways. This 
explains why so few people in middle life change 
their habits. They have become settled. The will 
can be led as readily to exercise its functions for 
good as for bad. The will can form a habit of 
thought which is right as well as a habit of thought 
which is wrong, and the remarkable fact is, that as 
one grows older the firmer and stronger becomes 
the will power. The will that has long been accus- 
tomed to wrong choices is apt to continue in its 
wicked preferences. This is equally true of a good 
will. The will that has been choosing good con- 
tinues to do so by very force of habit. It is well 
known that the will of a child can more easily be 
persuaded than that of an adult. It is God's plan 
not to break down the human will, nor to force it, 
but to persuade it. lie appeals to reason. He at- 



90 The Xoblest Quest. 

tempts by all kindly offices and genial influences to 
win the will to make the right and wise choice. The 
youthful will thus more readily yields to the divine 
Wooing. I have no doubt that the reason why so 
few, comparatively, remember their Creator after 
they have passed their twenty years is due to the 
fact that the will has become perverted, has become 
accustomed to hav: □ way, and has ac- 

quired the habit of pitting itself against the will of 
man, as well as the will of God. 

Another reason why youth is adapted to the 

transforming effects of conversion is, that the heart 

not become hardened. The conscience is a 

tender thing. The slightest sin in a child's life 

gives great uneasiness to the conscience. The first 

oath horror in the soul, and incites fear that 

God will send some thunderbolt to strike the wicked 

one down. We all remember with what fear we 

contemplated God in the times of our youthful Sin- 
fulness, A> men and women gTOW older and come 

to learn that the stroke doe> not immediately follow 
the Sash of lightning, that God does not imme- 
diately punish the sinner, and that life moves 
just the same, apparently, whether we have sinned 
or not, we come to be less concerned and less 
anxious about ourselves. ( hir consciences are less 



Rr.M km i:i:k Thy Cm wor. 91 

tender. They are less keen to discover the moral 
qualities in our actions. They are less alarming 
in their warnings; so that we go on forming habits 
which arc wrong in the sight of God, and yet we 

feci no remorse or pain. The heart of youth is len- 
der and open to the holy influences that come to it 
from the higher and the better life; the conscience 
is keener to discover the difference between right 
and wrong. It is stronger in its power to propel 
toward the goo(\, and is mighty in its ability to 
bring joy when good is done or sorrow when sin 
is committed. The modern psychologist has gone 
more deeply into the study of the human mind than 
his predecessors. As never before, we understand 
the workings of the human mind. Able scientists 
of our day are investigating and analyzing the ac- 
tions of the human intellection. By deep study and 
wide observation they have come to understand the 
scientific reason for the fact that so large a ma- 
jority become Christians in their youth. There is 
a peculiar relationship existing between the body 
and the soul. At that particular hour in the body's 
'ling and ripening is the time when the soul 
is most easily opened toward God and all holy and 
lofty aspirations. The hour when the soul is the 
Qsitive to God is the hour when the bodv is 



92 The Nobles? Quest, 

opening its life to the larger experiences of mature 
life. As never before, we have scientific warrant 
for pressing this admonition home to the hearts of 
the youth, "Remember now thy Creator in the clays 
the youth/ 1 because you are in that period of 

life best adapted to the transforming effects of con- 
version; and the great chance is, that if you do not 
now, under this favorable environment, at this op- 
portune hour, when all things are read)-, rememher 
your Creator, you never will; and you will be 
Counted among the Godless for eternity. I plead 

with the young life, represented here now, to take 

advantage of the hour. The tide is at its flood. 
Your opportunity is at hand. Now, if ever, is your 

time to get right with God. Unless yOU here and 

now yield t<> the p re influences of the Divine 

Spirit, bend your will to the divine law, give your 
love to the Divine Lover, and consecrate your life 

to the Divine Master, the chances are you never 

wilL I plead with you to rememher your Creator 
you are bo admirably fitted to do 
this holy thing. 

There is a further reason why we should re- 
member our Creator in the days of our youth. It 

is this: It is the duty of every one to give his 

whole being to the service of his Master. God has 



Ki:mi:m BKR Thy CREATOR 93 

given us a compound nature, — physical, mental, 

and moral, — and it is our duty to give to His serv- 
ice the energies of our physical body, the us< 
our mental faculties, and the complete consecration 

of our moral powers. It is not only our privilege 

to do this, but it is our duty. God has a claim on 
every young man and woman within the sound of 
of my voice, lie you rich or poor; be you the son 
of him who has both wealth and leisure, or the son 
of the man that tills the soil ; be you possessed of 
mental power that enables you to dig- deeply into the 
mines of abstract thought, and arrive at truth 
through the processes of induction, or only en- 
dowed with sufficient capacity to grasp truth in the 
form of a vague dream rather than as a rational ex- 
pectation ; be you a student or engaged in commer- 
cial affairs, the claims of our Lord and Master are 
just as binding upon you. 

Cod to-day is calling loudly for young men with 
strong limbs and sturdy chests, whose constitutions 
have not become weakened with self-indulgence, un- 
tainted with liquor stimulants, and free from the 
benumbing effects of narcotics. Strong young men 
who are armed with the Spirit, can grasp God's 
Word and carry it to the dweller in the frozen zones 
of the North, to the dweller on the mountain, or 



94 The Noblest Quest. 

the dweller in the plain, or to him who dwells un- 
der the palm tree in the burning tropics — anywhere 
and everywhere, where God's Gospel light has not 
shone. He calls for young women with hearts true 
and tried, who by patience, toil, and faith, can make 
the world better, nobler, and purer. 

And then again, God has a mental claim upon 

IL No nan has a right, in 

view of the present j, to allow his God- 

given talents to lie buried and undeveloped. The 
cry is, "Away with that young man upon whom 
God has stamped tin 1 unlimited accomplish- 

ments; for whom light was created that his eyes 
might sec, the air caused to vibrate with wav< 
sound that 1 might hear; for whose delight 

the birds sing their sw< and the Bowers 

bloom in beauty and fragrance — for whom all 

things were made — and yet, by the curse of strong 

drink and the la ntinuity of action and am- 

bition, is dead to all his privileges, and sinks like a 
/. Bake in the sea !" 

God has a claim upon us of unremitting toil, in 

view of a thorough, systematic preparation for the 

duties of life. Pardon me, if I u a glimpse 

of an early chapter in my own life. When God 
came and impressed upon my mind that I must 



R mi:mi:i;k Thy CREATOR- 95 

preach His Gospel, I felt that I was not ready — I 
noi prepared. God urged me to get ready. I 

then resolved thai I would meet that claim and get 

ready, if I must needs burn the midnight oil, and 
bv the sweat of my life's blood falling from the 
aching brow. Why, young friends, if the small in- 
sect can, by piling little upon little, by years and 
years of Unceasing and unseen toil, build up for 
itself a beautiful land, fruit-laden, flower-strewn, 
sun-warmed, shower-bathed, and angel-watched, so 
Can we, with our God-given powers, and under 
Him, build up for ourselves things equally beauti- 
ful and far more useful and durable, — the charac- 
ters of true men and true women. The Church in 
this age, with the perfection of the restless out- 
reachings of the centuries ; in this age, with its ad- 
vantages which have accrued from all the grand 
innovations of the past ; in this age, with all its en- 
ticements and allurements to honor and to fame ; 
in this age, simply resplendent with its vast possi- 
bilities declares in tones not to be mistaken, that 
you aie expected to fill the places of those upon 
whose heads now rest the silver crowns of age ; and 
in the same tones that speak of your coming honor, 
you are reminded of your awful responsibility, and 
are instructed in the claims that are resting upon 



96 The; Noblest Quest. 

you. These claims demand that you be fitted and 

ready to take up the work when it drops from pulse- 
less hands into yours, and carry it on to a higher 
and better realization of God's design. 

But, above all thin. . God has a morai claim 

upon US all. The present age need- now, more than 
ever in the history of the human race, moral men 

in Church and in State. The chiefest wealth to-day 
is manhood, genuinely honest, unyielding, clean 
manhood. What IS needed tO-day, more than any- 
thing else, is physically strong, educated, thought- 
ful, moral men in all the by-path- of Society, in the 
private walks of life; and even more than all else- 
where, in the public places of trust in our land. 
Here is our Chiefest danger. Ability, intelligence, 
and honest}- tOO often disdain the dishonorable 

means necessary to their recognition; and the re- 
sult IS, that we have in our public life a rotten and 

fetid putridity, whose Btench chokes the nostrils of 

the people. We arc losing the old-fashioned keen 
Sense tff sin. We -till denounce the individual man, 
who in his own private life commits a sin against 
the individual or State ; but so much of our modern 

business is conducted by corporations that we arc 

failing to see that there is the same moral obliquity 

involved in the theft of a corporation as in the theft 



i;mi'.i;k Thy CREATOR. «;7 

of an individual. We denounce the individual mau 

who commits murder, but we have no correspond- 
>f denunciation for the corporations 
which, by the simplest neglect, kill not one, but 
many ^i those whose lives arc in their hands for 
safe keeping. We need to-day, as never before, 
men with consciences which arc not lost when in- 
corporated with others; consciences that are as 
keen to feel their moral responsibilities in official 
place as in private life, in company or alone. Here 
is the danger of our modern social life. We have 
developed what might be regarded as the "newer 
unrighteousness/' As one of the results of this 
apathy on the part of good citizens, there is a pain- 
ful lack of veneration and reverence for the better 
and higher things. We have been taught to be in- 
credulous by the deception of bad men and by the 
betrayal of the sacred trust of deep confidence. Let 
US never forget that the disgraceful act of one man, 
or any number of men, can neither taint nor tarnish 
the principles themselves. They are God-given and 
God-preserved. Morality is just as much to be 
I and respected though a thousand supposed 
moral men prove to be immoral, and the laws should 
be respected and obeyed though driveling idiots 
and moral monstrosities sit in high places and mal- 

7 



98 Thu Noblest Quest. 

administer them. I appeal to vou, young men and 
women, who hear me this hour, to remember your 
Creator in the days of your youth, so that your 
moral life may he in harmony with the will of the 
Eternal, and all your ransomed powers dedicated to 
the betterment of the individual and the civic moral 
life with which you shall he surrounded. Re- 
member, -1, mental, and moral 
claims upon you, and it is your dun to give to Him 
.<>ur whole nature and your entire 
Y"ou are uot to wait until you become old and 
decrepit; too old t<> sin-' a song for Him; too old 
trike a blow for Him; and then, after having 

spent your lite in the Of the devil, when 

your feet are tottering to the tomb, to pry out, 

'Here Lord, I give myself to Thee, 'tis all that I 

can do." h may then he all that you can do, and 
. in Hi- infinite mercy, may accept you; hut He 
will tell you, "It is not all you might have done." 
with you to obey this admonition of the 
wise man, because it is your duty to give your whole 
being to the service of your Mast 

There is a further reason for the rememhrance 

of your Creator in the days of your youth. It is 
this: Every youth has friends over whom he i 

\ an influence for good or evil, and that in- 



;i:mi:i:k Thy CREATOR 99 

fluence should be consecrated to God in early life. 
( Hir influence is something we can no more escape 

than we can our shadow in the sunshine. Wc can 
not grasp each other's hand, we can not look into 
each other's face, without exerting an influence. 
No life is islanded. We must mingle with onr fel- 
lows, and that mingling is for their good or their 
ill. I recall one morning when I was riding on 
horseback across a Western prairie; I saw away in 
the distance, coming up the road, a little girl with 
her sunbonnet on, its skirt streaming back in the 
morning wind. Under one arm she carried her 
school-books, and in her other hand her lunch 
1 asket She was on her way to school. I rode on 
down the road, and she came on up the road, and 
soon we passed. She looked up into my face mod- 
estly, and as I looked down into hers, I said "Good 
morning," and she replied, "Good morning, n and 
1 on her way to school, and I rode on into 
the future of my own life. I have never seen that 
little girl since. She has, doubtless, grown into 
womanhood ; but I am sure that that little girl was a 
different child from having met me that morning, 
and I, a different man from having met her. The 
truth is, we can not greet each other on the high- 
- of life, nor mingle with each other in the 

LrfC. 



ioo Tot Noblest Quest. 

social circles, without exerting- an influence that is 
telling on character. Each of you young men and 
women here to-day has a little group of friends 
over whom your life casts the spell of its influence. 
It is either helping those with whom you associate 
to be stronger in all moral integrity, or it is weak- 
ening their wills and perverting their characters and 
harming their lives. Who can set measuring-rod 
to the slightest word which you may speak, or the 
most thoughtless act you may perform 

" A nameless man amid the crowd 

That thronged the daily mart, 

Let fall a word of hope ami love, 

Unstudied, — from the heart; 

A whisper on the tumult thrown, 

ansitory breath, — 

It raised a brother from the dust, 
i soul from death. 

Owoi '.' thought I germ of love I 

( ) thing at random east ! 

Thou wert hut little at the in 

Bat mighty at the last." 

A London physician recently has given in a med- 
ical journal a development of the theory, which is 

not altogether new, namely, that the human body 
emits variously colored rays. This is the way he 

puts it: "The rays emanating from a very passion- 



[Ember Tmy Creator. 101 

ate man have a deep red hue. One whose keynote 
in life is to be good and to do good throws off pink 
rays. An ambitious man emits orange rays. A 

deep thinker throws off deep blue. The lover of 
art and refined surroundings, yellow. An anxious 
depressed per-. mi, gray. < htie who leads a low, de- 
based life, throws off muddy, brown rays. A devo- 
tional, good meaning person, light blue. A pro- 

Mve-minded one, light green. And a physically 
or mentally ill one, dark green." Whether or not 
this theory should prove correct, it is undeniable 
that we send out moral and spiritual rays that affect 
every one whom we meet. At the judgment we 
must answer for the sort of influence our lives have 
exerted among men. And so, I plead with you 
young people to remember your Creator in the days 
of your youth, in order that your long life may be 
one continued influence for good upon your fellows. 

I would not be true to you nor the great inter- 
ests involved, did I fail to add one more reason 
why you should remember your Creator in the days 
of your youth. Your eternal interests are at stake. 
As I intimated a while ago, the .choices of your 
youth are to determine the nature of your charac- 
ter in later life. "The child is father of the man." 
What you are to be at sixty you decide at twenty. 



102 The: Noblest Quest. 

What shall be the nature of your old age is to be 
determined by the nature of your youth. Wc are 
not living simply for to-day ; we are living for to- 
morrow. The present is not so awful because of 
what it now has for US to experience, but because 
in it is l<»ckcd up all that is yet to come. Life is 
one constant unf Our morrows are born of 

our I ; and what we shall be next year, and 

the next decade, and in eternity, hinges upon what 
we are new. 1 would not be so much concerned 

u did 1 believe that what there is ^\ you 

could be inclosed in a Coffin and buried in a grave* 
What makes me SO intensely in earnest about this 
matter is this: YOU can not die. You have in von 
the elements which are eternal. You are to live as 

as Go<L And I am sure, not only by the Word 

id, but by the observations of the operation of 

the divine law in nature and from all argument 
from analogy, that your life beyond the -rave is to 

settled by your life this side the grave; and I 

am deeply anxious that the eternities which are 
yours shall be beautiful and pure and strong. I 
would not worry over you BO much, if I thought 
your life was as transient as the brief journey from 

the cradle to the grave; but because you have in 

you the spark of immortality, the lire of God which 

can not be put out, and because your life, so God- 



'KMr.rk Thy Creator [03 

like ami eternal, is to be fixed in its nature by your 
choices here and now. I plead with you with all 
the earnestness of my soul to remember your Crea- 
tor, Take Him into your life. Do not crowd Him 
out of all your thinking. Relate everything to I [im. 
Carry everything up to Him. Let every blooming 

flower, ever}- dashing waterfall, and every delight- 
some experience speak to you of your Father — 
God. Let Him be in all your thoughts. Remem- 
ber that you can only come to your best when you 
are properly related to the eternal God. You can 
never think your best thoughts unless He aids you. 
You will always run with heavy feet unless you let 
Him help you. Get in harmony with Him. You 
can use Him in the work He has given you to do. 
Your voice is weak. Let God help you strengthen 
it, and you will discover that if you thus put your 
weak voice in the embrace of God's will and God's 
law, you can by what you call your telephone, speak 
across the continent. Your arm is weak. It can 

rm but little. Get in harmony with God's 
law. Let Him help you, and you will discover that 
God's expanding steam and leaping lightning will 
multiply your strength unto the utmost possibilities, 
and you will grow God-like in the work you have 

rform. O, believe me, young people, if 
there was a time when men working blindly in the 



104 The Noblest Quest. 

dark might think little of God, that time is not 
now. God is manifest everywhere in our scientific 
world. He is seen not only in every opening Bower 
petal, and in every leaping thunderbolt, but in every 
electric engine and steam turbine. Do not be a fool 
and say in your heart, "There is no God;" but so 
take Flim into your thoughts and into your life, that 
the elements of His character in all their beauty 
and everlasl tne a pan of your be- 

ing, and you shall become eternal in your very na- 
ture: bo that bo long as God lives you shall live; 

and where Cod is, you shall be; and in all the great 

works in which God -hall be interested in any por- 
tion of His outstretching uni\ 1 shall ha\< 

part T want you, young people, to be worth while 

a thousand and a million years from now. T want 
yOU to relate y0UTSelv< I want you 

to live the loft}- life for eternity. If you do not 

b-arn that leSSOH DOW, you will never learn it. This 
is the springtime of your life. You must get in 

ur planting. I want your harvest to be so great 

that r earthly harvest-time shall be long 

enough in which you shall gather your infinite gar- 
ner. T plead with you, in view of the immeasurable 
interests at stake, t<j remember your Creator in the 

of your youth. 



VI. 
A DESERTED GRAVE. 

"And they departed quickly from the sepulcher 
ill fear and great joy, and did run to bring 
His disciples word." — Matt, xxviii, 8. 

> 'Mi: one has said that if you stand long enough 
on the corner of Broadway and Twenty-third 
Street, in New York City, every one you know will 
surely come along. This is doubtless an exaggera- 
tion. But there is one spot where all mortals meet ; 
it is at the sepulcher. You have not lived long nor 
much, if you, too, have not been at the sepulcher. 
You have been there ; you will go again for the last 
time, and not return. 

There is one particular sepulcher in which all 
the world is deeply interested. It was not so once. 
la the long ago cruel hate and prejudice crucified 
an innocent Man beyond the walls of Jerusalem. 
Many were interested in His crucifixion. The city 
was Crowded with vast multitudes who had come 
up to the great feast from all parts of the civilized 

105 



106 The Noblest Quest. 

world. They had heard of the trial and condemna- 
tion of this wonderful Rabbi, and the}' had fol- 
lowed Him as He bore His eross through the 
streets of the city out through the gate to the place 
of execution. Thousands upon thousands stood by 
e Ilim die. Very few cared where lie was 
buried A rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, gave 
space in his own rock-hewn where they 

might laj I . There were a few women 

who knew and loved Him, who had, doubtless, fol- 
lowed His bleed m to the sepulcher. A little 
group of unlettered i - 1 . peasants and fishermen 
were also sufficiently interested in the place where 
He lay to follow Him to the tomb. Aside from 
this smal p of interested friend-, the great 

multitude of Jerusalem had no Concern where the 
Crucified had been laid. It is not so now. That 
grave has b shrine to which millions make 

ner was G »nstantine converted 
to the Christian religion, and his mother, the Em- 

S Helena, led to accept the same faith, than the 

queen mother made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 
and attempted to find the -acred places made holy 
by the presence of her Lord. She sought to locate 
the places of the Savior's crucifixion and burial. 
Tradition tells us that she was enabled through a 



A 1 >ESER ri. D I Ikavi;. k>7 

dream to locate both the site of the crucifixion and 
the burial. ( hrer the tomb was then reared a 
church, which has stood there for more than fif- 
teen centuries. The place where it was said tile 
Lord lav has been regarded as a holy spot, attract- 
ing millions of pilgrims through the passing cen- 
turies. I have stood there and watched the pilgrims 
drag themselves prone on the marble floor into the 
presence of the tomb, weeping as though their 
hearts would break, and vet glad to know that the 
fulfillment of a life's dream had been reached, and 
that they were then permitted to touch the very 
stone upon which His holy body lay. One may 
have his own personal doubts as to the exact loca- 
tion of that grave. I am frank to say that I do not 
believe that the present Church of the Holy Sepul- 
cher covers the rock-cut tomb in which our Savior 
was buried. Indeed, it is not essential that we know 
the exact spot where they laid Him; because that 
tomb has been empty since that first Easter morn- 
ing. The tomb has lost all its attraction because it 
is no longer the resting place of our Lord. ( )n that 
first Easter morning, there was a little group of 
women who were exceedingly anxious to make 
their way quickly to the place where lie had been 
buried. They bore with them the precious ointment 



108 The Noblest Quest. 

with which properly to anoint His body ; for, in the 
haste of His burial, because of the approach of the 
Sabbath, this kindly office had not been done. We 
all know that when they reached the tomb they 
found it deserted. That spot no longer attracted 
them, and they departed quickly from the sepulcher. 
And yet that visit that morning to the sepulcher 
gave to those women three things which are for 

ISO. 

It gave them, first, a sepulcher fear. T do not 

think it >trange that those timid women experienced 
a strange fear in the presence of the grave. All of 

US naturally fear the burial place of the dead, be- 
cause fear of death is instinctive. The two strong- 
est p in every living thing is to continue to 

live and to prol- life in the existence of off- 

spring. The stra long life is tragic. The 

prodigal waste of health is only to be Compared 

with the pathetic struggle to restore it. How ready 

re in cur youth to neglect those laws of health 

which are sure to weaken <»ur physical constitutions 

and shorten our days, and then, when health has 
left I tttempt by all possible effort to restore 

what we have lost! Oliver Wendell Holmes was 
once asked for a recipe for living to be eighty years 
old. He replied: "Have some reputable physician 



A ! >ESEH i i.i) I '.KAVi,. 

tell you early in life that you are dying <>t* an in- 
curable malady. Then you will begin to take care 
of yourself, and you will live to be eighty years 
old." No doubt this is why so many delicate people 

outlive their sturdier neighbors. This struggle to 
prolong life by the destruction of disease is the 
Strength of the drug and the nostrum trade. Mil- 
lions of wealth are spent annually by all classes and 
conditions of men for healing drugs. They hope 
by their use to have restored to them in some meas- 
ure the health which they have so prodigally wasted. 
Those of wealth wdio have thus lost their health 
are seen running out into all lands, attempting to 
find some congenial clime, where, under more favor- 
able environment, health may be restored. I once 
met a young Tennesseean who was in camp with 
only his Arabian guide far out on the Arabian des- 
ert ; living there under the cloudless sky, surrounded 
by the far-stretching sand, hoping that such a life 
might heal his diseased lungs. We are all aware 
that we are on the march, steadily approaching that 
awful goal — the sepulcher. It lies yonder at the 
end of life's journey, and we would, if we could, 
hold back; but we find ourselves pushed on to the 
very gates of death. We hate coffins and shrouds 
and graves. Even some tlowers have become hate- 



no Tin; NOBLES? [^ 

fill to us, because their aroma reminds us of death, 
they have been so long employed to bedeck coffins 
and graves. Xo normal man wants to die. Xo 
thoughtful man can contemplate his own earthly 
^solution with equanimity. I do not wonder that 
there is current the opinion that no sane person 
llld ever attempt t<> take his own life. Surely, 

he must have been driven by hopeless despair, who 
has taken the leap at his own bidding into the 
sepulcher. 

We all also have this sepulcher fear because we 
do not know what lies beyond it. Men have always 

a tryinj the veil of futurity, and dis- 

cover what it contains. They have sought to pry 

into tl tS of the grave and know what the 

future life has in st« I them; but aside from 

the revelation of God's Word, we are left largely 

to our fancy t<> picture the life immortal. There IS 

Mich an uncertainty about it all, that the very mys- 
tery of it frightens us, and is stronger than any 

Curiosity we may have about it; SO that we hold 
k, and would not of OUT own accord rush from 
what we know to what we do not know, leaving be- 
hind the world with which we have grown familiar 

and which we have come so much to love, in order 

to rush into experiences which may be utterly alien 



A ! M.m.im i;i> ( |R \\ i.. Ill 

to anything we have known, and which will test us 
in ways for which wc may not have strength to 
bear. 

Wc have also the sepulcher fear because it 

means the destruction of our earthly plans. We 

all have our lines out. We are living not only in 
the present, but in the future. Yon who are here 
to-day have your plans made for to-morrow. You 
are planning what yon will do when the morning 
light shall come to you. Y^ou have that letter to 
write; you have that business engagement to meet; 
you have that note to pay; you have that machine 
to complete ; you have that household duty to per- 
form ; you have that lesson to learn ; you have im- 
portant engagements all through the day. Y^ou can 
not contemplate with any degree of complacency 
any thought of failure to meet the important en- 

ments which lie just ahead of you. It may be 
you have made plans for your new home into which 
you expect to lead your wife and little ones. You 
are about to enter upon your profession, for which 

have been all your life long making prepara- 
tion. O, there are so many things we all are plan- 
ning to do, that we tremble to think that our plan- 
ning will all be for naught! We expect some day 
to stop; but that day is far distant. We have put it 



ii2 The; Noblest Quest, 

so far away that we have made provision for the 
completion of all our plans and the fulfillment of 
all our hopes. Of course, we expect to leave this 
world, but it will be when we ourselves have fully 
made up our minds when we shall depart from it. 
And yet, the awful uncertainty that confronts us, — 
the likelihood that On any morrow the open sepul- 
cher may receive US and swallow up all our earthly 

hopes and plans, makes us fear the grave as our 

W( >rst enemy ! 

We have also a fear of the sepulcher because it 
separates us from our loved ones. Here is a bar- 
rier over which love can QOt climb. Wt-w is a wall 

through which no voice from our separated loved 
one> can reach us. Life when at its best, is largely 
a matter of loves and friendships. I hir greatest 

wealth is the friends we have. They are here with 

We knOW the sound of their voice-. We arc 

familiar with the touch of their hands. We toil hard 

all day that in the hours of our leisure we may sit 

by their sides and enjoy their companionship. The 

hardest task grows easy when done for them. Th 
loved ones give zest and purpose to all our en- 
deavors. With love for them, we can endure any 
temporary absence only I we know that the 

meetii 1 with them will be all the sweeter. 



A I )i:si;kti;i) GraVR 

We can gladly Bay, "Good night/ 1 because w< 
ped to meet them again in the morning. But the 
horror of the sepulcher is this: it means that our 
farewells arc for all time. It means that when we 
close our eyes in death, the sweet beauty of their 
faces shall no longer entrance us; and when our 
ears arc closed in death, the accents of their unself- 
ish love will be no longer heard by us. We go out 
from them to see them no more. Most of us have 
dependent upon us those whom we love dearer than 
our lives. When we sit down calmly and contem- 
plate our being swallowed up in the sepulcher, our 
hearts grow icy cold as we think what may become 
cf these who are so dependent upon us. They have 
so long looked to us for counsel ; they are so de- 
pendent upon us for food and raiment and shelter ; 
their lives are so locked up in our own, that for us 
to leave them means heart-break and overthrow to 
them. It is easy to fancy how readily one might 
be willing to "shuffle off this mortal coil," were it 
not for these loved ones wdio tug so tenderly and 
strongly at our hearts, bidding us not to leave 
them. These women who went that morning to this 
place of death found there, as we all find when we 
come into the presence of the grave, what I term 

a "sepulcher fear." The}' were attracted there bv 
8 



ii4 The; Xobij :st. 

love, and it is the only thing that can drag us back 
to the place where our dead lie buried. We may 
linger around the spot, but still our hearts are filled 
with fear. 

That visit that morning to the sepulcher gave 

ulcher joy. They had gone 

expecting to find a dead body in need of ombalm- 

They left with a great joy bounding in their 

heart-. They had been told, "He is not here; He 

p long enough to think 
what that n* meant tO them. When you re- 

call how their hope in their Divine Lord had been 
dashed by His ignoble death; when you remember 
they h, much of J Km and had 

appointed, you can then fancy with what 

faith in Him had lu red Have you ever 

had ; itfa in a friend crushed, and then had it 

wholly n u may know something 

Of the joy that came to tl; . men that morn- 

.vhen < ffl : they had ' l fondly and 

in whom they had trusted so deeply, and yet in 

whom they had been so bitterly disappointed, 
.should b ed to them. All their belief in } lis 

Divinity was nOW increased. Surely, He who had 
ver death and the grave was all that He 
.said He was, and more. They thought He w , 



A 1 )i. 1KB N$D < rRAVE. 115 

God the day He raised Lazarus from the dead. 

They knew now Ho must /v God, else He had not 

I [imself arisen from the tomb. 

We of to-day who make in imagination this pil- 
grimage to the sepulcher, find a like sepulcher 
because our faith in Jesus Christ as the Eternal 
God is established. We found our faith in Ilim 
upon the fact of His resurrection from the dead. 
Indeed, this is the eorner-stone of the whole Chris- 
tian system. We are willing to say with Paul, "If 
Christ be not risen, our faith is vain." We worship 
not a dead Christ, but a risen Christ. He who is not 
in possession of an unbounded faith in the resur- 
rection of the Lord Jesus Christ can not know 
what these women found that day at the tomb. 
They can not know the sepulcher joy begotten of 
a lively faith in the supremacy of the Christ over 
death. It is this which explains the gladness of 
Easter. This is why we sing our sweetest songs 
and deck our homes and our temples and our 
grave- with beautiful flowers. This is the Church's 
great feast day. Our Christ, once [crucified, is risen 
from the dead, and dieth no more. The Christian's 
faith is confirmed and his Savior is restored. Those 
women also had great joy because they would see 
Ilim again. Only the other day they had seen Ilim, 



n6 The Noblest Quest. 

stripped and bound to a cruel tree ; from his tender 
palms and feet and side had flowed His precious 
blood. They had heard His cry of agony, and wit- 
nessed Hi> tender forgiveness for the very men 
who were crying for His death. They had seen His 
limp and lifeless, hastily wrapped in the grave- 

clothes and ty to this borrowed tomb. 

and expressionless. Those 
kindly hands still. That loving heart had 

stopped Now, they depart quickly from the sepul- 
cher with their ! led with joy in the expecta- 

tion that they would soon see I Um again. He would 

Lflusfa with life. ( tace more they would hear 

His kindly voice; they would grasp lli^ friendly 

hand; once more their own heart- would grow 
warm in II: lowship. I do not wonder 

that the}- ran. What feet could be swift enough 
to hurry k into the presence of the dear one 

that - id? We, too, this morning 

may depart quickly from the sepulcher with a sepul- 

cher . e may not only I [im who 

died for us alive for evermoi never have 

Him in the flesh), but lie will cwn be to tis al>o 

in that day "the fairest among ten thousand, and 

the ( >ne altOgeti 'v." Moreover, that resur- 

rected One said that 'Tie that believeth in Me shall 



A |)i;m.kii:i> I '.kavi.. i 17 

never die;" and He announced Himself as the 
"first-fruits of them that slept;" and He hence has 
given us the glorious hope that we shall not only 
see Him, but we shall see our loved ones who shall 
be raided by the Power that lifted Him from the 

rock-cut tomb. This is the joy that keeps us from 
despair. This is why in the midst of our loneli- 
ness we are not without hope. This is why we can 
bear to press our way along life's highway, because 
we know that at the end of the journey, there will 
welcome us the dear ones who ran ahead of us a 
little way and passed out of our sight. They will 
meet us and greet us again. They also had great 
joy because it meant to them that, when their time 
on earth should come to die, the grave would be 
incapable of holding their bodies in its cold em- 
brace. They remembered now that Jesus said, "Be- 
cause I live, ye shall live also," and I am sure they 
ran with lighter feet because they had in their hearts 
the assurance that the grave could not hold a be- 
liever in Jesus. It meant their own victory over 
the grave. And so we who are here to-day have 
the same sepulcher joy, begotten of a like faith in 
Him who is able to raise us also from the dead. 

We may not know just what form our bodies 
shall take in the resurrection. We are not, indeed, 



n8 The Noblest Quest. 

sg much concerned cither about the method which 
Christ shall employ in that mighty miracle, or in 
just what way our soul and body shall be reunited; 
hut we all do find our hearts thrilled as we contem- 
plate the time when, after death has done its worst 
to tli< hich we have so long since learned 

to love, this house of clay in which we have lived, 
and which has become our dear home durim 

our | its of consciousness, shall continue to 

'. with tis in whatever delight and serv- 
ry the future may have in Store for US. 
We will nut argue nor Contend about the miracle in- 
volved, hut we will take the glonOUS promise to 
our hearts and believe in a God in whom is all 
r and wisdom, leaving it to Him t« > work Out 
the ] by which the miracle shall he effected. 

in the fact, being unable to explain it 
all. 

That visit that mornii women also 

ulcher inspiration. 1 .earning of Christ's resur- 
rection, they did n«»t g<> apart, sit down and rejoice 
in their newly-found faith and hope. It is quite 

natural when men find a rich treasure to conceal it 
until they can whok *fl it. The}- rarely want 

to -hare it with others. This fact makes me al- 



A i ) in D Grave, i [9 

ways suspicious of any circular Utters which are 
scut to me, announcing that some rich gold-mine has 
been discovered in Alaska, and the discoverer is ex- 
ceedingly anxious to have me share his wealth with 

him, and if I will only give him a little of my money 
to help him develop it, he will make me a million- 
aire. With this exception, you rarely find a man 
who is anxious to share with Strangers any newly- 
found treasure that has a money value. But when 
we find the "Pearl of great price/' we want to share 
it with others. Somehow, we really can not best 
enjoy this rich treasure if we attempt to enjoy it 
by ourselves. These women did the most natural 
thing in the world. They departed quickly and ran 
to bring the news to others. It has always been so. 
The first impulse of a new convert is to tell the 
- to some one else and get him to enjoy the 
same glad experience with him. The spread of 
the present Welsh revival is due not so much to 
the fact that eloquent ministers in the pulpit 
preached the Gospel to the multitude, hut to the 
fact that each new convert departed quickly to find 
.some unsaved relative or friend, and would not 
until he had secured him as a convert to his 
Savior. Those women that Easter morning were 



120 The Noblest Quest. 

the first great messengers to tell of the resurrected 
Christ to a dying world. They hurried to tell the 

ciples, and then when the disciples learned of it, 
they told it to others: and so all Jerusalem came to 
know it. Thousands on Pentecost gathered in 
Jerusalem on the great feast day from all parts of 
the country, heard of this resurrected JesUS, and 
then went out into all lands carrying the same n. 

ge to the r :id. When the hour had 

me for Chri n His disciples and go hack 

to the "glory which lie had with the Father hel 

the world was/ 1 His 1 unand given them 

He the summit of I olivet, was to go out 

into all the world and tell every creature what they 
themselves had learned. It was a hard thing for a 

Jew to share his religious faith with a Gen- 

tile world IK- came by and by to learn how to do 

it • and Wilt BOOH tl. nd came to 

hear of tin- 00 EuT 

made to llame with the new faith. Within three 
Centuries K me had taken down her and in 

their place had run up the £ ss. Within 

three centuries the fire had been put OUt On every 

Jewish altar, and every Roman and Grecian idol 
had toppled from its pedestaL The inspiration I 



A 1)i:m;kii;d GraVI , 121 

gotten in the breasts of those women when they 
found that their Christ was alive, and driving them 
out to proclaim the glad news to others, is the sort 
of joy that best portrays the genuineness of the 
faith and hope of every believer. However glad we 
may profess to be in the knowledge that our Lord 
has risen, it will count for but little if we hug the 
glad message to our own hearts and refuse to tell 
it out to others. If we, indeed, have this day been 
with the women to the sepulcher and found it 
empty, we, too, will depart quickly, and, with the 
inspiration begotten by the confirming of our faith 
and the enlarging of our own joy, will run and tell 
others the great truth we have found. I want 
every man and woman who is here to-day to know 
Christ is not dead, but alive for evermore. I want 
you to know that my Christ is your Christ, and that 
what He is to me, He will be to you. I want all 
those darkened souls in our city slums to know that 
Jesus Christ is risen ; so that they, too, by faith in 
Him, may be rid of their sins and lifted into a higher 
and a sweeter life. Don't you? I want the four 
hundred millions in China to know that Jesus Christ 
has risen and is their Savior, too. Don't you? I 
want the three hundred millions in India who have 



122 The Xom.kst Qv 

so long groped in darkness, trying to find the light, 
to know that Jesus Christ is their Savior, and that 
He is not dead, but has risen. Don't you? 1 want 

the uncounted millions in Africa who are SO be- 

nighted, bowed down to creatures of their own 
handiwork, I . that Jesus Christ risen is the 

only true and living Cod. and that if they will but 
dp Him, He will exalt them inl ger civili- 

zati< m and uplift them inl :e. Do n't you ? 

You and I ma i bear this mes 

i. We i situated that we can not run 

quickly or very Ear; but, doubtless, each of 
within your power some oppor- 
tunity by which you may have some little part in 
sendu id t« i tell of the 

Christ You and I may be represented by 
some one whom we have sent to India, or to Africa, 
or to China, and the k hrist will be as glad 

now that that missionary is not only the bearer 
of the n. i ah Bake, bi ours ; 

and He will as surely say to us who have made his 
U done/ 1 as 1 [e shall say it to 
him who has gone himself. 

I doubt not there are those here to-day who 

are saying within then "i K if I, like the 



A Deserted Gra^ 

Marys, had actually made thai pilgrimage thai first 
Easter morning to Joseph's tomb, and had seen the 
stone rolled away by the (laming angel, and heard 
the voice telling me that 'He is not here; He has 
risen,' I, too, might rush on swift feet from the 
sepulcher and have my own heart filled with this 
Inspiration about which you speak; and I, too, 
would be glad to tell others what I had known for 
myself. If I had only seen llis face, or if I could 
only see Him now, how different would it be, how 
much easier; but it seems so hard to believe it all, 
and tell it all, when I have never heard the accents 
of His voice nor caught the sweet vision of His 
face.'' To all such here to-day I would put answer 
in form like this : 

u It were not hard, we think, to serve Him, 

If we could only see! 
If He would stand, with that gaze intense 
Burning into our bodily sense; 
If we might look on that face most tender, 
The brow where the scars are turned to Splendor, 
Might catch the light of His smile so sweet, 
And view the marks in llis hands and feet, 

HOW loyal we should be! 
It were not hard, we think, to serve Him, 

If we could only B 



124 The Noblest Quest. 

It were not hard, He says, to see Him, 

If we would only serve; 
1 He that doeth the will of Heaven, 
To him shall knowledge and sight be given f 
While for His presence we sit repining, 
Never we Bee I lis countenance shining; 
They who toil where His reapers be 
The glow of His smile may always see, 

And their faith can never swerve. 
It were not hard, IK- Bays, to see Him, 

If we would only serve. " 



VII. 

LIFE'S JERUSALEM. 

"Behold } we go up to Jerusalem." — LUKE XVIII, 31. 

In the Greek Chapel in the Church of the Holy 
Sepulcher in Jerusalem, there is a short marble pil- 
lar set in the middle of the floor, which is said to 
mark the center of the earth. One smiles at the 
statement, and yet is it not true that Jerusalem is 
to-day the polar star towards which millions of 
Jews, [Mohammedans, and Christians alike, are 
drawn? Around what other city do so many holy 
interests cluster? From my early childhood I had 
wanted to see Jerusalem. It was one of the goals 
toward which I pointed my life. I looked forward 
with keenest joy to the day when, rising in my 
stirrups, I might catch my first glimpse of the Holy 
City. Every traveler privileged with the oppor- 
tunity of seeing Jerusalem, regards that as one of 
his highest joys. It is easy to understand why 
Jerusalem has attractions for the Jew. For thou- 
sands of years it was the capital of his proud king- 
dom. Around it clustered the most sacred memo- 

125 



126 The: Noblest Quest. 

ries. In it were transacted many of the most im- 
portant events in Jewish history. To this day, 
every orthodox Jew counts it his highest privilege 
to make a pilgrimage there, and, if possible, spend 
his declining years within its walls, and be buried 
in its sacred soil. There are to-day in the city many 

3 who are kept there through the helic- 
ons of their rich brethren in other lands, in 
order that they may there, at the hoi}- places, make 
prayers in their behalf. X" one can witness the 
scene On a Friday at the Jews' wailing place with- 
out being profoundly stirred. To this day millions 
of Jews still look forward in hope to the time when 
Jerusalem shall again he the capital of a reorgan- 
ized Jewish kingdom and take its place once more 
amon-- the great 

Jerusalem red cities of the 

Mohammedans, and, possibly, next to Mecca, is 

lered by them the most >acred. Surely the 

M< isque i >f St < knar, er< n the site of the Jew- 

ish temple on Mt Moriah, is at least held as the 
third sacred mosque in the estimation of the devout 

Mohammedan. For hundreds of years no Jewish 

or Christian foot was permitted to cross its thresh- 
old. To-day Jerusalem is a Mohammedan city 
i than it is either Christian or Jewish. Its 



Life's Jerusalem. 127 

[uc is far more important in point of beauty 
and attractiveness than any of its Jewish syna- 
gogues, 1 r even the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 
itself. 

We Christians all know the attractive power of 
Jerusalem for us. We value its history, not only 
because of its Jewish connections, but chiefly for 
the reason that it was the city where talked, walked, 
suffered, and died our Divine Redeemer. Every 
devout Christian would count it a supreme joy to 
walk the streets of the same city in which Jesus 
Christ preached, wrought miracles, suffered perse- 
cution, died, and arose again from the dead. When 
I am asked what city, of all the cities of the world 
I have visited, is the one which I enjoyed the most, 
without hesitation I reply, "J crusa l em -" This city 
had a strange attraction for Jesus from His earliest 
childhood. It requires but little imagination to pic- 
ture Him at twelve years of age, going up with His 
family to the great city. How His boyish heart 
must have bounded in anticipation of the pleasure! 
I can see Him running ahead to the highest point 
on Mt. Scopus, as the little family caravan is mak- 
ing its way from Nazareth to the city, in order that 
Tie may be the first to catch a glimpse of the Tem- 
ple's turrets, and see the wonderful city about which 



128 The: Noblest Quest. 

He had been hearing all His life. I am not surprised 
that He was loath to leave it, and that when the 
other members of the family had departed for their 
Nazareth home, he tarried behind in order to 
lengthen His stay in the interesting- city. 

After He had begun His public career, and had 
known something of the joy of success and the dis- 
appointment of failure, lie and His disciples were 
on their way up to the capital. In announcing His 
intention to visit Jerusalem, He tells His twelve 
disciples that He is making this journey "in order 
that all things that are written concerning the Son 
of man shall be accomplished. 91 

Prom His earliest conscious moment, Jerusalem 
bad been the goal of His fife. He knew that some- 
how His earthly Career WOUld end in the City of 

David. All He ever said or did was in some meas- 
ure related to the final tragedy in His life, which 
would occur in the great city. Whether He was 

talking in the grain-fields, or preaching in the vil- 

l t or talking to the multitudes from a boat on 

the shore of Galilee, He had His heart fixed on 

the city where He was at last to crown His earthly 

i- by His final act of self-abnegation and self- 

sacrifice for a sinful world. Holman Hunt has 

painted a picture of the boy Christ standing in His 



Iji'i.'s Ji;kis.\i.i;m. 129 

father's carpenter-shop at evening time, stretch- 
ing His arms, in the weariness of His day's toil, 
and thereby casting a shadow like that of a cross 
on tli 1 floor, as the setting sun streamed through 
the western window. That was not altogether an 
accident, for surely from His boyhood hours IK' 
constantly under the shadow of the cross. lie 
was always walking up toward Jerusalem. 

It is thus with every one of us. Every life has 
its Jerusalem. We are all walking towards it. Life's 
success or failure depends upon the character of 
the goal toward which we are struggling. One 
never arrives at any place worth while without 
struggle. Xo ship on any sea ever merely drifts 
into any worthy haven. The reason why so many 
fail in life is because they go out on life's high sea 
without chart or compass, without sail or rudder, 
and are drifted by every wind that blows and are 
heaved by every tide that flows. Xo wonder life's 
shore-line is crowded with so much of human 
wreckage. What master on any vessel that sails the 
1 vet slips his cable and sails out below the sky- 
line who does not know as well the point for which 
he is sailing as lie knows the slip fmni which he 
lei go his anchorage? My quarrel with the average 
youth of the average town is this — he simply drifts. 
9 



130 The Noblest Quest. 

He is satisfied with the mediocre and the common- 
place. He speaks only the language taught him in 
the home. He performs only the task set him by 
a superior will. He remains always in the same 
spot where he first happened to strike the planet. 
I To lacks pui satisfied with whatever 

may happen to come his way. He has no lofty aim. 
Low \ iks a noble word to such as these: 

"Grandly begin ; though thou have time 

But for one Line, be that sublime; 
Nut failure, but low aim is crime. 91 

One's life is wholly fixed by the character of its 

aim. What an What do you like ? 

', "Tell me what you like, and I will 
tell you what you are." And he was right ; for it is 
not so much what es or believes, but what 

he e: at determines his character. ( hie may 

.need that he IS Compelled to do 
things which are nut of his own choe»ing. ( )ne may 
l reared that his beliefs are furnished him 
second-hand. But one's own loves mold his char- 
acter, more than his tasks. What a man loves to 
do decides his ideal and desires, and these are the 
potent factors in character-building, for no man 
will rise above his ideal. There is no one element 
more potent in the determination of a worldly career 



I,ii'i:'s JgRUSAUCM. 131 

than singleness of aim or oneness oi purpose. The 
men and women who have accomplished anything 

in life WOrth while are they who have done some 
one thing', and done that one thing well. Watt, 
Cartwright, Morse, Fulton, Edison, Marconi, — these 
are the}- who have devoted themselves to some one 
worthy pursuit, and have made their names for- 
ever memorable. This was the secret of Napoleon's 
success. He ever saw in the sky above his head 
what he called his star, which beckoned him on. 
He tried one winter night to get his uncle, the Car- 
dinal Fesch, to see it, but the uncle replied, "I see 
no star." Xapoleon said, "I do;" and always lived 
as though he really saw it. The secret of Paul's 
success is due to his motto, "This one thing I do." 
Xo wonder he was the instrument in the hands of 
God of driving idolatry from Europe, and estab- 
lishing wherever he went the Christian faith. On 
the tomb of Joseph II, of Austria, are carved these 
words : 

" Here lies a monarch, with the best of intentions, 
Who never carried out a single plan." 

In the pursuit of temporal and material things, 
this law which I am emphasizing holds good. In 
all the walks of life, they only have won the truest 
success who have kept their lives keyed to some 



132 The Noblest Quest. 

one important issue. It is so in the realm of our 
moral being. No one may hope to grow into the 
purest and s st character who has not ever 

re him the highest ideal of a perfect life. In- 
deed, no purpose in life may he said to he truly high 
which dues not seek to he like Christ Important 

Bcial aet of Christ's life, next in im- 
portance is the power of His holy example to en- 
amor men with pur and entiee them to 
tnilar perfection. In all our emphasis upon 
Chris lenient, we must not forget the im- 
putable p< 'teney i if 1 [is example. 1 le stands out 

the "Fairest among 
ten thousand, and the ( toe altogether lovely/' Every 

youth, if he \\«>uld attain to his highest, should 

make tl. 1 his life nothing less than 

tracter i aled in Jesus Christ. 

LS human 1; : human soul, 

that I '.< >d w« 'ill.: an ideal nothing 

short of the Divine. The only being worthy of any 

's imitation is the ; 1 Man, such as 

fo y< >uth has a Jerusalem 

toward which he is struggling worthy <>f him which 
d anywhere this side of tin stars. 

ting fame and solid happin 

lie- builds t<>o low who builds beneath the itai 



ijnfs Jerusalem. 133 

The ultimate goal of every life should be to 
n with Christ 1 call you this hour to the 
tlingof your purpose upon a hoi}- life that is in some 
way \\orth\- of you. Do not be satisfied with any- 
thing short of the development of your highest and 
noblest being. It is possible lor you to win what 
the world calls success, and have your name en- 
rolled upon its scroll of fame, and yet to have lived 
ignobly and died unworthily. lie only attains to 
success who has acquired that which he can take 
with him up through the silent air to the throne of 
God. He only has lived a life worth while wdio, 
though poor he may have been as the world calls 
poverty, attains the riches which are eternal. This 
is the one high goal toward which every honest- 
hearted man struggles; and this is the one high re- 
ward which every true seeker may gain. Relieve 
me, if you gain that goal and get that reward, it 
will be because you have souglit it; your life's bark 
will never drift into heaven. You will gain that 
heavenly port because, all through life's storms and 
you kept ever your bark's prow pointed 
toward that desired haven. 

"In your journey up to your life's Jerusalem, 
you will have no time for foolishness. In the morn- 
ing of your life, when the blood bounds strongly 



134 Tiif, Noblest Quest. 

through your veins, and your youthful nature 
prompts you to look upon the rosy side of things, 
and all your skies are rainbowed with promise, and 
it would seem as though no dark day for you could 
dawn and no serious ill in life overtake you, you 
need to remind yourself that life is something more 
than one long holiday. Cod wants you to be happy. 
lie has made it possible for every earthly living- 
thing to enjoy its existence. The young of all the 
brute creation gambol and play. If any one in all 
's created universe has a right to be happy it 
is he who IS made in I lis likeness. Tt is for you 
to be happy, but you need to learn that your chief 
business in life is not to secure amusement. There 
IS a time to work as well as a time to play. You 
must earl\' learn that the pleasures of life are to be 

ndary pursuits. The}- are to come to you, not 
as things primarily sought in themselves, but which 

come unexpected, while in pursuit of the more im- 
portant afTairs of life. Xo man's life is so sure of 
failure and no man's life comes to be so contempti- 
ble in the sight of others, as the life of him who 

is wholly given to the pursuit of pleasure. Believe 

me, you have no time on your way up to your life's 
Jerusalem to loiter by the way and dally only with 
pleasure. You are wasting precious time. The 



l.M r.M. 135 

serious duties of life arc calling to you. You must 
be about your Father's business. 

You must also understand that you are not to 
give too much of your time to doubts and perplexi- 

If you keep standing at every crossroads, 
doubting as to which road to take, or which road 
will afford you the most pleasure by the way, you 
will never get anywhere. God has plainly put up 
His finger-boards along the highway of life, and 
you will make no mistake if you follow according 
to the divine direction. You will make neither 
progress nor gain success from faltering and delay, 
because you have not had solved for you all the 
mysteries that you may meet. If you should un- 
dertake the folly of refusing to eat your next meal 
until all the mysteries of digestion are fully ex- 
plained to you, you will starve. You must learn in 
matters spiritual as well as material, to take some 
things for granted, and accept the testimony of 
those wdio have gone before you. Do not stand 
upon the threshold of a religious life, refusin. 
enter it because you have not had explained to you 
all the mysteries of the Bible. Such a course is as 
foolish as to refuse a drink of water when you are 
thirst}', because you do not understand how the fluid 
Can bring to you the relief that you need. When you 



136 Thk Nobusst Oi 

are thirsty, you ask no questions, but drink. God 
has made ample provisions in His Word for your 
guidance. Trust it. Do what it tells you. Go 
where it tells you. You will never get anywhere 
worth while, you surely will never attain to any 
Jerusalem in life worth having, if you stand at life's 
crossroads quibbling about minor things, which only 
hinder your pr< ur life. 

You will find on your way up to your Jerusa- 
lem a thousand temptati* u from right 
and left, and you will be tempted to sit down and 
ask yourself how much harm will come t< 1 you if you 
indulge in this sin, or that I want to warn you 
that life's work is too serious for you to spend an) 

time inquiring how much harm may come to you if 

you do certain forbidden things. Rather ask your- 
self, how much good will c u if you in- 
dulge in the thing prohibited. The thoughtful youth 
ncerned m< I he can get out of 
any a nirse ^^ action than to be able to measure sim- 

the harm which will come if he d in it. 

Remember, you are in serious business. ¥bu are 
undertaking a journey which must end in the high- 
est joy or the d despair. Every step of the 
way depends upon your own choosing. Cod is 
willing to help you, but He will not force you. No 



I.m.'s JEW S m.i.m. 

omnipotenl hand will drag you unwillingly up the 
- and into i some undesired heaven. 1 f you gain 
the best things in time and the best things in eter- 
nity, you must keep ever before your mind the chief 
aim of all your struggling, and refuse all temptation 
iter and dally by the way. You are a king go- 
ing up to your kingdom, and "the king's business 
demands haste." 

On your way up to your life's Jerusalem, there 
will be, necessarily, some struggle. Mark you, if 
your goal is worth while, the pathway that leads to 
it is up, and not down. It requires effort to ascend. 
It is easy to slide down. It has been said that any 
dead fish can float down stream with the current, 
but it requires a live one to swim up against it. Uo 
not always expect smooth sailing. That is a golden 
Injur when in some favorable time your life's bark 
is launched amidst the huzzahs of the multitude and 
the fluttering of banners. It seems an easy thing 
to slip clown the well-oiled ways into the quiet 
water- which so gently welcome. Do not fancy that 
because all the waters around you are so smooth 
the day you set out to sea, that there are no storms 
awaiting you yonder below the sky-line. I would 
not discourage you, but I would warn you that your 
life's journey must have in it some pain as well as 



138 The Noblest Quest. 

pleasure. If you are of heroic spirit this news will 
not daunt you ; indeed, the very struggle through 
which you will pass, will strengthen the purpose of 
your heart. 

Going back to that little group surrounded by 
Jesus, to whom He said, "Behold, we go up to Jeru- 
salem," remember, lie told them that lie went, 
knowing full well what awaited Him in the city; 
but lie was not daunted, lie knew no discourage- 
ment Do you not sometimes wonder why He did 
not flinch? He must have known something of the 
val and the mocking and the SCOUrging and the 

spitting upon, and the heavy cross, the cruel spikes, 

and the dying .agony. Do you wonder, in view of 
that fact, that He did not waver? When you think 
of it, would you not wonder if He had flinched, 

knowing Him as you do? It was just like Him to 

go in 1 it all. Let me know the strength of 

a man, and I need not be surprised at any act which 

he performs. 

During a summer visit to Italy I wondered at 

the versatility of Michael Angelo. I had seen his 

ses" in the Church of San Pietro in Vinculi 

I had .seen his unfinished groups of statuary in the 

Sacristy of San Lorenzo. I had walked under his 

towering dome in St. Peter's. I had gazed, en- 



I.irr's JERUS \i.i:m. 139 

tranced, at his marvelous frescoes in the Sistine 

Chapel. I had been somewhat familiar with his 

poetry; hut I could not understand how one mind 

tOUld he so colossal and versatile, (t was only Oti 

returning- home, when reading Grimm's biography 

of this Italian genius, that I came to expect almost 
anything from a mind like Angelo's. You may 

wonder at the popularity of Alfred Tennyson, and 
be unable to comprehend his popularity among the 
Knglish-speaking people ; but I ask you to read 
these two lines in his poem entitled "Maude," and 
you will no longer wonder that people will sit at 
the feet of such a poet : 

" For her feet had touched the meadow, 
And left the daisies rosy." 

Xone but God's true poet could w r rite lines like that. 
Study the life of Alfred Tennyson, and you will not 
be surprised at any lines which may fall from his 
pen. Do you ever wonder at the works of nature? 
Are you ever appalled at the evidences of its power? 
Are you ever astonished at the evidence of its de- 
signs? Does your faith somewhat falter in the 
presence of the Bible's recorded miracles" Get ac- 
quainted with God, and when once you know Him, 
you will find that everything in His world follows 



140 The: Xoblkst Quest. 

as a thing to be expected and as a matter of course. 
If you know Jesus, you will not wonder that in 
spite of the bonds and the imprisonments, in spite 
of the stripes and the crucifixion, lie unflinchingly 
walked up the rocky highways to His Jerusalem. 

It may be so with us. There are battles to be 
fought with evil. There arc burdens which we 

must bear alone; and yet no task will prove too 

hard fur us if we only employ God's proffered help. 

It does not seem like vain boasting in Paul to say, 

"I can do all things," because he immediately added, 

"through Christ which Strengthened) me." We 

Can make like boast it we rely on like help. Do 

I be afraid of the hard things which may come 

into your life, because for all those things great 
strength will be given you. Would you not rather 
ha\ reat task and the corresponding great 

strength with which t<> perform it, than to have only 
little taskSj b you have only little strength 

with which to meet them? I have a friend who 

1 ides a bicycle. I li^ legs have sinews like steel. I [e 

tells me lie never COmeS to a hill which he is not 
able to mount. As \ think of that friend, I say to 
in;. T ride my bicycle, "1 would rather have 

tin di of my friend that will enable me to 

drive my wheel tip any gradient, than to be so dr- 



cumstanced as to be able only to ride my wheel 
upon the level," Thru, in view of the mighty aid 
which God will render you, do not worry about the 
struggles which you arc to meet Go forth like 

men and face them! Meet them, not in your own 
strength, but in the strength of God! Be enamored 
c f a noble life. Let no present allurement in any 
path of mere temporary pleasure entice you. Keep 
}Oiir face set like a flint toward your Jerusalem. 
Be ambitious for yourself. Others are interested 
in you. Why should you not be interested in your- 
self? I once saw a picture painted by Retzsch, in 
which he portrays the angels, good and bad, fight- 
ing for the soul of Faust. The angels from the 
heavenly battlements are hurling roses down upon 
the heads of those who are opposing Faust, and 
before those roses reach their destination they have 
turned to burning coals of fire. The picture is but 
a portrayal of the great fact that every soul has 
interested in his success or failure other person- 
alities. You fight not alone. A goodly company 
not only observes but is engaged in your behalf. 
The good would win you. The evil would damn 
you. Who will get your soul? Be assured that 
they who are for you are more than they who are 
nst you; and if you will but ally yourself with 



142 Ths Noblest Quest, 

the heavenly powers, you may gain for yourself 
\ ictory over all your opposing foes. Grow for your- 
self a character that shall be like your Lord's, and 
shall be fitted for the kingdom which shall never 
end. Keep ever in mind that you are on a journey. 
You, too, are going up to your Jerusalem. 



VIII. 

THE IMPARTIAL GOD. 

"God is no respecter of persons:' — Acts Xj 34. 

And yet, how slow we arc to believe it! Do 
you recall your childish prayer? 

" Now I lay ine down to sleep, 
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take." 

A great many "IV in a very short prayer! And 
then you remember when you were permitted to 
add a little to it, and you said : "And God bless 
papa and mamma, brothers and sisters, Uncle John, 
and Aunt Mary. Amen." You see, your prayers 
began to be a little more inclusive, and were for 
ethers than yourself. We began our religious life 
in a very selfish way. I recall my boyhood idea of 
what a Christian should be. He was to be a Meth- 
odist. I then thought that when the whole world 
became Christian, everybody would belong to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. As I grew older, I 

143 



144 Tin-; Noblest Quest, 

was led to believe that there were good people in 
ether Churches, and one did not need to go to 
heaven by way of membership in my Church. We 
Christ:; tting even' war broader ideas in 

regard to I real kingdom. Some oi us have 

advanced far enough to believe that there arc good 

. who may, by the mercy . 4 < Jod, 
• t<> heaven. Son* tants have not 

[uired that grace. I toe of trie best signs of 
the coming kingdom is this growing charity for Eel- 
low Christians. As never b ince Christ of- 
lnistian unity have there been 
many i Followers living in the bonds of 
ical Christian 1 

In our early childhood we were taught that 
d little children, that if we wanted 

God tO love US we must I I, T recall a little 

on a lake-b summers ago. Tt was 

ning. The lamps had been lighted in the saloon, 

and a mother not far from where f was writing at 

a table, was preparing her little boy, three or four 

1 [e did not want to leave the 

mpany and was putting off the time of retiring as 

long as lie could by asking question and by 

the mother said, "Now, my little darling, if you do 

not undress and [ God will not love you. 



Tn i: I m parti \i. I \( i». 1 45 

You will be a bad little boy." He took up the sug- 

stion and said, "Mamma, God does not like bad 

little boys, does He?" and she replied, u No, He 

es not; and if you do nol let me get you ready 

•• bed you will be a bad little boy, and God will 

not love you." He replied, "Mamma, God clues not 

like bad people, docs He?" "No, my child." "Say, 

mamma, God docs not like tramps, docs He?" "No, 

my child." And as 1 overheard the mother's 

answer, I felt as though I would like to say to the 

little child, "Your mamma is mistaken ; God d( 

like tramps. God likes all men, and the more fallen 

and needy and lost they are, the more His great 

heart goes out in boundless love for them." 

Do you recall how Jesus sought out the wicked ? 
See Him in search of the lost, and you may know 
how God, His Father and ours, loves the sinner; 
for as Jesus loved, God loves. See Jesus in search 
of the rich wicked. lie was entering Jericho, and 
the richest man in town had been ostracized by the 
Orthodox folk of the place. The little man had 
climbed a tree to catch a view of the passing Savior. 
He was the last man whom they would have selected 
a convert to the new faith; but Jesus saw in him 
the possibilities of true holiness and spoke to him, 
10 



146 Tin: Noblest [jv 

and invited Himself to dine with him, and won 
him to His heart forever. 

Look at that rich young Jew seated at the re- 
5, taxing his fellow-Jews and hated 
by them all. lie would not haw been selected by 
any orthodox Jew for any | ' trust and respon- 

sibility; f«»r he had made himself a partner to the 
pire, and v cting money 

to help nm the Roman Government; but Jesus saw 

in him a future dis< id called him to follow 

Him, which he did. and became one ^i His able 

and notrnt p0W< I for all time. God ean 

•; a rich sinner, and though it may be hard 

t« 1 woo and w in hin ready to di< 

him as f< >r the | 

the i>- h >r wicked. I le en- 
a town one day, and found that there was one 
blind man who was counted so low and un- 

thy that he was the m( >ised man in the 

community, and not permitted to enter the 

and had lie asked who was the most 

tched man in the place He would have been 

told that it wa> this very blind man, — t<-o mean tc 
ciate with his kind. That pOOT fellow was the 

.>ne in all the town whose condition appealed 

most to the heart of th< r. He SOUght Him 



The i mi'aimi \i. I »od. [47 

and found Him. He healed him and restored him 

od standing among his fellows. A man 
Ing friends in a strange city would wish to a 

himself with the most popular, but Jesus would 
search out the most need}- and save the most wicked 
man in all the place. 

See Jesus seeking the outcast wicked. One day, 
while standing in the temple court, a group of men 
came dragging into His presence a despised woman 
of the town. They charged her with an ugly sin, 
and said she had been caught in the very act. They 
reminded Him that it w r as the requirement of the 
law that she should be put to death. They would 
have Him decide her lot and declare judgment. 
They told the whole ugly tale of her revolting sin. 
It was so unclean that He, the pure in heart, would 
not look them in the face while they recounted it ; 
and so, in sheer modesty, He turned aside and 
stooped down as though He would write on the 
floor and kept His face averted until they had 
told their story; and when they were done, with- 
out looking up, He said, "He that is without sin 
among you, let him first cast a stone at her," 
and then by and by looking Up He discovered 
that her accusers had fled, and He, infinite 
Purity, was left alone with her — infinite im- 



148 This Xoblkst Quest. 

purity — upon the temple-floor. He spoke words to 
her that cut her to the quick. The sight of Him 
awakened deepest penitence and sorrow for her sin. 
He saw there the penitent heart, and speaking words 

of pa :u her away with a new joy in her soul 

and a new D her lips. Those men who 

brought her into His presence would not have dared 

date with her on the street; hut the loving 

saw in h< s dple, and I lis great 

heart went out in 1 r her who had been re- 

st in the town. 

mile wicked. He was 
in Syro-Phoenici ty from the habitations of 

the Jews, trying to get a little rest from His ar- 
duous lal hen a | 'nan came to Him, 
pleading that lie might heal her afflicted daughter. 

She had heard of the mighty Stranger and wanted 

'or the cure of her loved one. 
The discipli - driven her away, and 

sincerity, npathize 

with D their rebuffs and refusals; but 

when He h; Bed Himself, or rather, when 

He had shown to His disciples how much faith she 
possessed., He freely answered her prayer, 
to health her daughter, and gave those narrow Jew- 
ish disciples of His an illustration of how 1 1 



Tin: I M PARTIAL ( iOD. 1. 19 

heart went out to all men, even beyond the con- 
fines of Jewry. Thus we 9ee that when Jesus was 
among us lie was not blinded by station. He was 

not repelled by sin. lie only wanted to save the 

souls of men regardless of their worldly position. 

By anil by the hour came when Jesus was alone 
with His disciples for the last time on earth! He 
had led them out over the brow of Olivet, had had 
those last words of sweet fellowship and counsel, 
and then gave to them His last earthly commission, 
"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to 
every creature," and a cloud suddenly received 
Him out of their sight. As they stood astonished 
[hey could doubtless hear the angelic choir welcom- 
ing Him back to His rightful throne, singing, "Lift 
up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye 
everlasting doors, for the King of Glory shall come 
in ;" and then, when they had somewhat recovered 
themselves from the shock of the parting and the 
strangeness of it all, I fancy on looking into each 
other's faces they said, "What is it that He told 
us to do — 4 Go ye into all the world and preach 
the Gospel to every creature?'" That was a hard 
saying for those narrow-minded Jews; a hard thing 
for them to believe that God could have a regard 
for the salvation of men who were not the chil- 



150 Tin; Xobi. 

dren of Abraham, His chosen. It was a hard thing 

for Peter to realize that God planned to redeem His 

children beyond the confines of his own nation. 

You will remember that he was in Joppa at the 

heme of I friend, Simon the tanner, by the 

1 [e was asleep i m the h • and had 

that remark, which - b i be n< 

sary in order to make him tall enough to look over 

Jewish prejudices and be willing I sal- 

:i to any man wh<> Jew. I [e did it ; 

but it seemed, in view of all his after life, under 

rt of protest In spite of all his c llow- 

ship in tl ars with the Master, Peter, nor any 

qualified to carry the ( t* >spd to 

rod th( h province. When 

•nld have an apostle to hear the glad tid- 

:, 1 le was compelled to lay 
hands upon anothei i man. He picked 

the ri [ that time, I le laid 1 [is hand 

upon the most intelligent soul in all Jerusalem, He 
saw in this sch Jew the making of a great 

apostle; and so He il, of Tarsus, a man 

tall enough to look over his Jewish prejudices, edu- 
I so that he could present in the cul- 

tured 's of the world, and with a soul alive 

with zeal that would not quail in the pr< 



Til i; I m PARTIAL ( '."I). i i 

any persecution from Damascus t«» Rome, and up 
to the moment when 1 1 i s head fell int<> 1 1 1 • 
tioner's basket. The other apostles were too 
strongly >ed of Jewish prejudice ever to be 

successful evangelists for the Gentile world. They 
were untutored, ignorant men, and p I the 

prejudices of ignorance. Paul may have been as 
intensely Jewish, but his wide learning and splendid 
educational equipment made him a mighty agency 
under God for the evangelization of mankind. It 
was hard, it is still hard, for a Jcwv to believe that 
God cares as much for other folk as for the lineal 
descendants of Abraham. 

If we look at the Greek world of Christ's time 
we will discover that this cultured people were as 
narrow in their views of unity as the Jews. They 
seemed to think that their little nation was the spe- 
cial favorite of the gods. They prided themselves 
upon their intellect and physical culture. They 
reared their proud temples and carried cm their 
educational institutions looking with extremest con- 
tempt upon all other people who had not their 
superior advantages. They called all beside them- 
selves "barbarians." 

The Romans were a little broader than the 
(•reeks; and yet hew proud and self-satisfied they 



152 Tin- Noblest Quest. 

were with themselves! When Rome was at the 
ht of her civic power and splendor, the vast 
majority of its people were slaves, and very few 
were citizens. Faul made no vain boast when lie 
declared that he was a Roman citizen. It was one 
thing to be a Roman subject and a very different 
thing b i be a R< 'man citizen, entitled to all the rights 
and prerogatives of a citizen of that vast empire. 

e had her patrician class and all the rest were 

LOS. In the light of these historical 

ailing the bigotry of the Jew, the narmw- 

and the prejudice of the Rom- 
ans, • ht not b that this idea of 
prejudice crept into the faith of the early Chris- 
tians. Augustine Stamped Upon the faith of the 

early Christian Church this narrow conception of 

the divini ii. Men came to believe that God 

did not love all men, and was a respecter of per- 

lie for the elect few, and 

ed by the reprobate many. The doctrine of 

tion clung to the Church through all its early 

:y, and has come down even to the pr 

time. There was a widespread notion that God did 

not love the whole world; that the divine lo\ 

no sense included all mm. If Methodism had done 

nothing else than fight away at this false doctrine of 



Tin: i m p \imi.\i. ('.ml). 153 

the carl}- Church; if it had done nothing else than 

drive this narrow doctrine of election out of prac- 
tically ever}- Christian pulpit in Europe and Amer- 
ica, it had done well. We must not forget that the 

bread Christian unit}- and charity of our (Lav, which 

rl that Christ died for all men, and that "who- 
rer will, may be saved," are due to the untir- 
efforts of the founders of Methodism and fol- 
lowers of John Wesley. It has come to pass that 
the pulpits of all the evangelical Churches of our 
land are to-day preaching practically the same Gos- 
pel. As never before in the history of the Christian 
Church the wdiole Christian world believes that the 
old statement made so long ago is true — that "God 
is no respecter of persons." 

To-day, as never before, the Church is under- 
taking to keep Christ's last command, and is going 
out into all the world to preach the Gospel. As 
men go forward to proclaim the way of salvation 
to a dying world, there are still those wdio arc ready 
to say : "The heathen nations are satisfied with their 
form of religion, and why should we attempt to 
force our faith upon them?" "Their religion is 
good enough for them: why should we disturb 
them with our faith? They want no change. They 
are not crying for a new religion." This is only 



i54 Tiitc Xoblest Quest 

true when a heathen nation is utterly ignorant of 
Christianity. To-<lay the heathen world is becom- 
ing acquainted with the religion of Jesus Christ, 
and is actually welcoming His ministers; and the 
cry for worker- is 50 great that the Christian 
Church is finding it difficult to answer their appeals 
and to secur dent numbers to 

go to their help. Much of the heathen world has 
in our day to see the SU] g^S of 

our Chris :th. They sec the superior citi/en- 

ship which and it is not 

surprising that they wish also to profit by the bene- 

i a higher and nobler religion. So far a 
Christians rned, we know the superior ad- 

vantages of anity. AW' know what it has 

done for the individual. When we 1< >< >k intOOUrOWfl 

hearts and r what Jesus has done for us, 

what lie IS b ry day : when we recall what we 

without Him, and what we have come to be 

with Ilim, we can not but wish, witli all our souls, 

that ever}- other person in this land and in every 

land might have the same experience. We know 
what Christianity has done for the home. We can 

not help Contrasting the life of these million 
heathen with our own. I >ur homes are full of com- 
forts and bl Their homes abound in neg- 



Tn i: I m PARTIAL < -« »i>. [55 

lecl and misery. We have schools for the culture 
of morals and intellect; they have none. We have 

skilled physicians to attend US when Stricken with 

they have none, save those who are sent as 

missionaries. Forty million heathen die annually. 

The death-roll of China alone nearly equals in three 
months the total population of London. A woman 
in India broke both her limbs, which decayed and 
fell off at the break for want of medical attention. 
Imagine her suffering, yet helpless and neglected. 
We have a religion which advances purity and pro- 
motes the love of truth ; but their religion often 
reeks with the very sediments of vileness. We 
have our Christian Church with its holy Book, its 
sacred day, its consecrated ministry, its stately and 
inspiring- service. The heathen temple has its 
senseless idols, its low and revolting ceremonies, 

led over by sensuous priests and priestesses. 
Our mothers care for our infant girls with motherly 

and tenderness. In China little girls are sold 
in the cities like chattels, and generally for the vil- 

E purposes. We educate our girls and prepare 
them for every possible form of usefulness; but in 
japan the father frequently compels his daughter 
to enter a life of shame and misery that he may 
profit by her debauchery and ruin. We decorate 



: 



156 The Nobli nest, 

the walls of our homes with paintings and precious 
souvenirs; but the king of Dahomey, a few years 
since, slew six thousand captives that he might 
ornament the walls of his palace with their heads. 
The difference between them ami us, between their 
condition and ours, can only he explained by the 
fact that we know Christ and they do not. A re- 
1 that h so much for us as individuals, 

a religion that has converted a hut into a home, 
and b anized out of the vast seething mas 

humanity an intelligent and powerful nation, puts 

and me tinder bond I U we can to bear this 

savin] to all the s<>ns of men. If there were 

iiture life, if our ex] were to be bounded 

by a cradle at one end and a coffin at the other, we 

shouli ipremest delight to give our 

faith to the heathen world for what it will do for 
them here and n<>\v. There can be no doubt in the 
mind ent Student of current history, 

that our Christian religion is to-day building, n<>t 

so much its temples where >]>ires pierce the sky in 
all Christian lands, but characters which stand 

four-square before God, fitted for the noble fellow- 

of heaven. These beautiful Christian char- 
acter be found wherever the Gospel is given 
right-of-way to human hearts. There are as beau- 



Tii i: 1 m PARTIAL I '.« -i). 157 

t i ful specimens of manhood and womanhood on the 
banks ^i the Ganges, and the Yang-tse-Kiang, and 

the Congo, as On the banks of the Thames or the 
Hudson. 

We need not turn back to the old days of 

Roman martyrdom to see how Christian men and 
women have died for their Savior in the declaration 
of His truth; but in our own day, in far away 
China, we have seen more martyrs to the Christian 
faith than the Christian Church has seen for one 
thousand years. We may know how deeply rooted 
the Christian faith has come to be in hearts and 
lives when we recall how thousands of our brethren 
were willing to suffer the extremest torture, and 
then at length the pangs of martyrdom, rather than 
renounce their faith in Him who had died for them. 
Surely, if our faith is so sweet and saving to all 
men everywhere, every Christian is under the su- 
premest obligation to see to it that every man every- 
where has the opportunity to accept it. It is only 
the same old narrow belief of cxclusiveness that 
tends to withhold the Gospel from the heathen 
world. One can not be in sympathy with his Lord ; 
he can not have a saving faith in a Cod who is no 
respecter of persons, who will assert that he be- 
lieves that we should confine our religious efforts 



158 The Xodlkst Quest, 

to the salvation of those within our own borders and 
send no evangel of salvation to the vast dying mil- 
lions beyond our nation's boundary line. Who is 
so narrow as to complain of the cost in dollars and 
cents? Indeed, we are spending so much as a 
Church upon ourselves at home that the scant pit- 
tance we send abroad is hardly worth mentioning. 

For every hundred cents we spend upon our own 

Church enterprises in America to-day, we give but 

cents — the price of a | stamp — for for- 

1 'nly a ; -tamp is taken from 

every dollar, which the Christian Church raises at 
■i(l the Gospel to the va>t majority in 
heathen lands. It is a wry interesting and all but ap- 
pallii r every dollar spent in India by 

our Church to-day, we receive thirty times as great 

result as we do from the same amount expended at 
home. Thirty dollars will provide for the animal 

support of a native preacher in India. And it is a 

humiliating fact to the preacher at home that the 
average minister in India to-day secures far more 
Converts annually than he. [ndeed, when we com- 
pare the growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church 

in America with its growth in India and other for- 
eign Gelds, we will find that we are annually in- 
creasing the membership of our Church from the 



Tn i; 1 m PARTIAL < » (, i>. 

increase of members in the mission fields. 
Were it not for our rapid growth there we would 
find that our great Church was decreasing in its 
membership rather than increasing. J recently 
heard an eminent Presbyterian layman say that the 
records of that Church revealed the fact that dur- 
ing a recent year there were twenty-five hundred 
Presbyterian Churches in America which did not 
report a single convert. Our Church has, doubtless, 
a better record than that ; but we would be put to 
severest shame if our annual reports were decreased 
to the amount of the increased membership which 
has been added to our rolls during the year in for- 
eign lands. What is needed to-day, more than any- 
thing else, in order that Christ's kingdom may 
come, is more money and more men. Xo ; I make 
a mistake. We do not need so much more men and 
more money, as we need more consecration of Chris- 
tian hearts in this Christian land. When our own 
hearts are more thoroughly consecrated to our Lord, 
and we get into more intimate sympathy with His 
great loving heart for all mankind, then there will 
be plenty of men and plenty of money to carry on 
this great work of the Lord. There must be awak- 
ened in the Church to-day an all-conquering faith 
re this world can be saved by our blessed Christ. 



160 The: Xobucst Oncsx. 

He who doubts that this world shall become the 
kingdom of our God can help on very little this 
great enterprise. It is faith which brings things to 
and yet many, who believe that it shall some 
day be done, say it takes so long it can not be in 
their time. And yet it might not take so long. If 
we had only one thousand missionaries at work in all 
the Q fields to-day; and each one of the one 

USand should be instrumental in gaining but one 

avert for th< r, and that one convert should 

be instrumental in leading one other into the Iring- 

m, and thus each new convert secure another 

■■, it would require only twenty-five years to bring 

the w! t heathen world to the feet of OUT 

: d. 
Th( tian missions is one of the 

nders of the modern world. ( tae hundred years 
e of the din ' the Bast India Company 

declared that H in India were a sign of sheer- 

• lunacy. But Only the other day the lieutenant- 

neral of Bengal said that Christian missions had 

ne more for India than any otlur agency, lie 
who will, without prejudice, intelligently study the 

Kits of God am<»ng the darkened nations of 
the earth can not help discovering that the heathen 
foundations are tumbling and tottering. God has 



Tii i; Im PARTIAL ( «< 'i). l6l 

ordered that they shall. IK- wants our united aid 

and CO-Operation. He has not only at His com- 
mand the consecrated hearts of Christian men and 

\\<uncn read\' and willing to give themselves and 
their resources to this splendid enterprise, hut He 
lias also at I lis command all the resources of the 
physical world. It has always been so. It was said 
in olden times that the "stars in their courses fought 
against Sisera." We know also how in the clays of 
Joshua, when he was waging- that unequal warfare 
against the five kings of Gibeah, that the very sun 
and moon stood in the high heavens and the day 
lengthened in order to give victory to God's own. 
We recall how in the ancient clays of the Greeks, 
when it would appear as though the Asiatic civiliza- 
tion might dominate the Western civilization of 
Europe, when that little company of noble Greeks on 
the Plain of Marathon would hold back the invad- 
ing host of Persians, and when it seemed that the 
superior numbers of the Persians would utterly 
annihilate the little band that in the afternoon the 
burning rays of the Western sun darting like fire in 
the eyes of the Persians, who were pushing their 
way to the westward, blinded them ; and then each 
Greek picked his man and slew him, and those who 

did not fall by the sword became routed, turned 
ii 



1 62 Tine Noblest Qui 

and fled, and escaped into the sea. God, when lie 
wills, can hold back a vast army by the silent, yet 
powerful, ra 5UI1 in the heavens. 

One day it looked as though Spanish civiliza- 
tion would dominate England. Spain's proud Ar- 
mada set off [Uer the inhabitants of the Brit- 
ish Isles. God did not intend that that type of 
Christian civilization should be dominant. Onlook- 
&id, "The Armada is invincible, and 
all but sure of defeat." But God only 

ut of the northwestern 

sky, and 1 hour the v. ccan 

ingulfed Spain 1 1 fleet 

ne day it la though the arch-murderer 

of Europe would be the final conqu the con- 

tinent, and even grind Wellington's army into the 
soil of Belgium, Any prophet might have i<>v< 
that Napoleon, not Wellingl ild be the victor 

at Waterloo. Cod did not intend it. All lie needed 
1 rain from the heavens, and drench 
the deep sr.il of the plain with COpiou- floods 

on the morrow, when Napoleon went forth to 

for the battle, he discovered that his 
heavy batter 1 not be brought up becaUfl 

the mud, and he ordered that they should wait until 
tun should have dried tip the roads. That gave 



Tn r I M P MM "i \i. ( '.nil. ifi 






time for Blucher's re-enforcements to arrive, and we 
all know that it was God's rain more than Welling- 
ton's army that defeated Napoleon, 

I have seen a picture in the Uffizi Gallery, in 
rence, representing the Battle of Ivry, in which 
Henry IV, of Navarre, is waging war. As I looked 
at the pictmw the contending forces were in such 
mingled struggle that it was impossible to say from 
the viewpoint <>i an onlooker which side would be 
victorious. By and by I saw up in the right-hand 
corner oi the picture a company of angels with 
drawn swords; and that told the story that the}' 
who were guarded by the divine forces would win 
the day. When we often look out over the strug- 
gling sons of men, beholding how the forces of light 
are contending with the forces of darkness, we may 
sometimes wonder which side will be victorious; but 
if we only have the eyes of faith we will see many 
signs giving prophetic promise that the Lord's 
army will win, and that light will dispel darkness, 
and that Christ will surely conquer. The God who 
- all men alike will see to it that in His own 
good time all men, everywhere, in all lands, under 
all suns, shall come to a knowledge of the truth. 






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